Star-Crossed
by Yel Ashaya
Summary: Data is kidnapped by Lore, who is intent on destroying the Enterprise and his brother and finding the emotion chip. However, Lore starts to have a change of heart when he sees there is more to life than power when he becomes acquainted with an ensign who had her eye on Data. My first 'long' fic, written a year ago when I was fourteen. All comments are welcome. T: adult theme
1. Prologue

The construction of the first successful android capable of emotions, Lore, was meant to herald a new age for the advancing world of robotics. At first, the android being fully lived up to his aims and surpassed the Federation's and the Galaxy's expectations. However, Lore had a different idea. As he was sentient and completely free to think and do anything he pleased, Lore started to form his own opinions of the colony, the Federation and humanity.

The other colonists on Omicron Theta initially harboured mixed and tumultuous emotions, but they soon grew fond of the newest edition to their so called 'family'. Soon, Lore began to behave in ways that were akin to malevolence at the colonists' views of him began to rapidly morph into hatred, but most notably, anxiety and terror.

Only a few years after his activation, Lore contacted the Crystalline Entity in 2338. The desolation and devastation that came as a result of this strategic attack caused Lore to broaden his mind and look further over the horizon. Seeing the men, women and the children flee; all conglomerating in large, disorderly clusters was the precursor for Lore to realise something; They were inferior. Every person, every animal, every microbe was inferior to him. The reign of biological lifeforms is coming to an end. It was him firm belief that he was perfect, he was untouched and there was nothing to challenge his superiority. He was all-seeing, all-powerful and had no rivals...

In the midst of the attack, Lore was deactivated, along with his 'brother', Data, by his creator, who then fled the planet. The latter mentioned was discovered by the Starfleet ship, the USS Tripoli mere months after the Entity's attack. However, Lore was left in storage, dismantled and forgotten for more than twenty five years until the Galaxy-class USS Enterprise-D came across his disassembled body. Unbeknownst to them, the dormant life form was malicious and determined.

The events that followed were of desperation, despair and worry for the entire crew of the Enterprise, but in the end, they had the upper hand and Lore's seemingly flawless plan to feed them to the Crystalline Entity was completely foiled. Left reeling from anguish and regret, he was transported into deep space that same year and was doomed to drift in the vacuum of the vast, unforgiving universe for more than two years, until he was recovered and reconstructed by a passing ship. Prior to discovering the homing signalling beacon that Soong had built on the planet Terlina III, Lore set about finding the ship that had successfully disrupted his plans and stood in his way; the Enterprise. Unbeknown to Lore, there was an android who seemed to be an exact replica of himself was serving as a senior officer working for the inter-galactic peacekeepers and explorers; the United Federation of Planets. The officer's name was Data, and his assigned post was the USS Enterprise-D.

Over time, Lore had developed a certain, distinct and very strong hatred against his creator. For, Soong had built him and brought him up as his own, before he lost faith. Soong had abandoned him, and simply left him to rot. He had been forgotten and erased. But, that was until the 'golden child' arrived. That was Data and Lore viewed him to be inferiors to himself, which was more or less actually true. Lore had mastered emotions, contractions and simple human actions, but for Data these usually simply things became a daily challenge. Data had to learn everything from scratch; like a baby. Whereas, Lore was simply activated and he could do more or less whatever he pleased.

However, there was one flaw in Lore's design work. His emotion chip malfunctioned and soon he could not control his emotions. And, once that chip was damaged, the only things Lore felt were contempt, hatred, anguish and destruction. He longed for devastation and ruin. He fed off of the sadness and pain and suffering of others around him.

In Lore's eyes, Data was inferior, Dr Noonian Soong was inferior and every single biological lifeform was inferior. Whether it was was an ant or an elephant, Lore knew that he could crush it single-handedly. And, what was worse, Lore could not feel pain, nor was he capable of feeling guilt, which made him even more stronger and more resilient.

As far as Lore could tell, he was doing absolutely nothing wrong. He was angry and he wanted revenge, and, what better way to get your revenge than by waging war? Lore could see no answer to that question, and so he continued. He did not like to feel sorry for himself, but he knew that he was jealous of Data. Who wouldn't be? Data was a high ranking Starfleet officer with numerous links to the highest of Federation authority. Lore was alone, and he had no one.

Lore was scheming, conniving and, most of all, he was clever. His mind was filled with ideas and dreams of dread and sadness, which he wanted to unleash upon not only the world, but the entire galaxy with a simple click of his fingers. He had the intelligence and the means, as well as the solid drive and determination so he could pull off this plan.

But, the Federation was watching...


	2. Discussions

The main lounge and recreational facility on-board a Galaxy-class starship, such as the USS Enterprise-D was located on deck 10, section 1. The person in charge of the upkeep and maintenance was managed by the mysterious woman belonging to the El-Aurian species, Guinan. Guinan saw herself as more than just a barkeep, she enjoyed helping people and many people who had served with her regarded her as one of the most selfless and caring individuals they had ever known.

In Ten Forward, two officers were enjoying their long awaited break, for which they were very grateful. As a few more officers came and sat by their table, they carefully and quickly shunted their belongings along, leaving the new arrivals some breathing space.

"Well, then?" Ensign Grace Fletcher said as she eyed her friend eagerly, "Who's your celebrity crush?"

Ensign Saunders had been daydreaming, but she wasn't really asleep and so blinked a little and then answered her friend's question, almost, "Oh... I don't know..." She said, sighing.

"Come, on, Sarah!" Grace encouraged the other ensign. "I am sure you can think of someone!"

"Alright, then," Sarah said finally, after a moment of brief silence, "But, promise me you won't laugh."

"I can't promise you anything," Grace said carefully.

"Okay, then," Sarah finally gave in to her friend's persistence, "Octavian."

Grace twitched slightly, thinking. "Who?" She gave up.

"You've heard of Rome, right?" Sarah said, and Grace nodded. "Well, he was the first emperor."

"I thought that was Caesar," Grace wondered.

Sarah shook her head. "Nope. He was dictator."

"Anyway, how can you even know what this Octavian looked like? They didn't have cameras back then," Grace reasoned.

"Statues, paintings, mosaics, carvings," Sarah replied. "The list is endless."

Lieutenant Summers had been sitting quietly for a while now. "Wait, when was this guy around?" He asked, of Octavian.

"Not sure," Sarah answered. "I know he was born in 63BC."

"So… that's over two-thousand, three-hundred years ago," he said, thinking over his calculation.

Grace grinned. "Wow. That is old."

Sarah scowled at her. "Whatever, I don't care," she said stubbornly. "Anyway, Grace, who's you celebrity crush?" She asked; her eyes began to narrow.

Sighing, Grace soon replied quietly, "I don't know."

"Go on..." Sarah prompted her.

"Anyway," Grace said, trying to get out of it. "He's not a celebrity, so, I cannot say."

Again, Andy interrupted. "Come on."

"If you think I'm going to say it is you—" Grace began.

He raised up his hands submissively. "Of course not." He smirked. After sobering a little, he asked her, "There are so many to choose from. I mean, if you like guys who are millennia years old, like Sarah does, I will not judge."

Grace rolled her eyes and then continued, and her voice was as quiet as a mouse's, "Commander Data."

"What?" ensign Saunders studied the expression of her colleague. She sipped her synthehol and shook her head. "Grace, you can't be serious!" She chuckled, showing her perfect smile.

Ensign Fletcher stared defiantly at her confused shipmate. "What's wrong with him?" She looked around the room, suddenly getting the feeling that everyone was looking at her. They weren't.

Saunders leaned forward and waved a disapproving finger, tipped with expertly applied clear nail varnish at her friend. "Well, for one, he isn't even a person!" She reminded her friend, before glancing around the table and seeing everyone's obviously amused expressions, causing her to chortle and she wiped her brow, sighing.

"You dated that Klingon before, right?" Fletcher defended her corner with a defiant folding of her arms and she leant back, reclining in her seat.

Saunders sighed. "That was different."

"How is Mr Ich-Ach-Och any more human than Data?" She giggled at her own impersonation of a Klingon.

"Exactly." Andy pointed out.

"Shut up, Andy." Fletcher scowled at the lieutenant opposite with dark blond hair and who had half a bowl of spaghetti in his mouth.

"All right, all right," Andy Summers backed off, raising his arms up in some sort of informal recognition of surrender, "calm down," he said, in a slightly patronising tone

"Look," Saunders leant forward and looked into her friend's eyes, "If you really think you have a chance, why don't you go and talk to him?" She put a reassuring hand on her shoulder. "What have you got to lose?"

Fletcher grinned, before adding, "I suppose you're right." She was about to stand up, when she seated herself again. "This is inappropriate. He ranks me. I can't ask him."

"Sure you can," Sarah encouraged.

"Yeah," Andy Summers chimed in again, "you never know, you might be lucky. He may even let you..." He thought long and hard, perhaps for too long a time, about what word be an amusing innuendo to say "... rewire his neural net." He jabbed his elbow into an officer next to him who obviously understood the joke and they high-fived, making a rather loud and annoying noise appear to ricochet around them.

Saunders cast a disappointed and annoyed look in his direction. "Shut up. Why don't you just keep your nose out and mind your own damn business?"

"Suit yourselves." Andy harrumphed and slumped in his seat, as he quietly consumed his spaghetti, which was almost definitely cold by now.

"What are you waiting for?" Sarah encouraged Grace. Grace had never really been very lucky with men, and so Sarah felt as though, because she was her best friend, she should offer her some encouragement. The last boyfriend that Grace had had was actually lieutenant Andy Summers, and that was over three years ago. Grace was very pretty so Sarah could never quite understand why she couldn't find anyone.

Ensign Grace Fletcher smiled, before anxiously replying. "Here goes."

As soon as Grace had only got a mere five meters away from the table, she spun on her heel, and returned to her original seated position near the large observation windows.

"That was quick." Saunders observed, slightly sarcastically, but she was interested too.

Exhaling, Fletcher looked at her and then said. "I don't know where he is." She looked glum and a little annoyed.

"Oh." Sarah Saunders laughed grimly. "Aren't you going to see if you can find out?"

"Nah," she waved the suggestion off, "he's probably busy."

"Maybe you should ask someone?" Sarah offered up a suggestion.

Andy leant forward. "Maybe," he interjected, "you should stop mooning over him and look for a real man." He clicked his teeth and pointed both his thumbs in his own direction.

"Why don't you just leave?" Saunders said wearily. She got no response, but she could have sworn that she caught sight of him pulling a crude face, aimed at her.

Fletcher slowly inclined her body towards the table. "I'm not sure."

"You've never been shy." Ensign Saunders ascertained. "I've always been the shy one."

Grace added. "Well, not in this instance."

"If you're not that comfortable, the maybe you should just wait a while. You know, give it time."

"Hmm..." Grace considered the point that her friend had made.

"It might just be a phase."

"By 'phase'," Grace attempted to lighten the mood, thus uplifting her spirits, "do you mean, like, me being attracted to artificially intelligent lifeforms?"

"If you want to think of it in that particular way, then yes." Sarah Saunders replied. "Hey, don't you think we should leave now?"

Grace looked alarmed; she had never been late to start her shift, and she certainly had no desire whatsoever to tarnish her perfect attendance record. "Why, what's the time?"

"There's a clock over there." Sarah observed.

Grace turned her head so she was facing in the direction that her crew-mate had just pointed. "So there is. When does your shift start?"

"Well, its 1910 hours now, and my shift in engineering started at 1900 hours."

"You're right, we should be going." Grace suddenly realised that the timings of her shifts had recently changed. "Wait, I don't start for another two hours. You go on ahead." She gestured towards the large sliding doors that provided the only exit from Ten Forward.

Sarah glanced over her shoulder, in the direction of the crowd of people that were sat around the table that she and Grace had previously been sat. "I'll leave you in the capable hands of Andy." She chuckled.

"Gee, thanks." Grace replied, sarcastically.

"If I'm honest," she stepped forward, "I think he's got a bit of a soft spot for you."

Grace a visibly flabbergasted. "Who? Andy?"

"Duh! Who else would I be talking about?"

"I don't know, I just wanted to be sure that we were both talking about the same Andy." Grace had know Andy since her childhood, and they used to be best friends, but all that was different now.

"Just look." She gestured to ensign Summers, who was obviously winking at Grace.

"Ugh." Grace expressed her annoyance. "You saw how he behaved earlier."

"I know, but men are weird creatures." She chuckled.

"How do you mean?"

"Let me put it this way, I think it would be far easier if men were more like Data."

Once again, Grace was confused as to what exactly her friend had meant by what she had said. "What?" She asked for further clarification.

"Well, then they would do anything we tell them. They wouldn't wander off or talk about mindless things. They would just be totally dedicated to you." She bit her lip, then laughed. "They would do anything."

"I see your point." Grace then waved her friend off and sat down on one of the many bar stools at the entrance to Ten Forward, where she was approached by Guinan who asked her what was troubling her. "You look a bit, lost. Anything I can do?"

"No, not unless you know a way of getting Data to even look twice at me." She looked glumly at the floor.

Guinan pulled up a chair and sat next to her. "You'd be surprise." She smiled. "Anything I can get you?"

"No thanks, Guinan."

"Are you sure? I know counsellor Troi quite often finds that a piece chocolate helps her to relax."

"Don't worry, but thanks anyway. I think I'll leave now."

"Mind how you go." Guinan advised, before wandering around the room to collect up the used plates and cutlery, pausing to talk to almost every single person she passed.

The walk to engineering seemed to Grace to be to be taking longer than usual. It was only a short stroll and an even shorter turbo lift ride away. On the way to her assigned post, she decided to ask the ship's computer for Data's whereabouts. She reached a comm panel and then asked, "Computer, locate lieutenant commander Data."

"Information regarding lieutenant commander Data's position on this ship cannot be clarified due to rank deviations." The computer's plain, female voice bluntly pointed out, before beeping and annoying little tone.

"Thanks a lot." Grace muttered under her breath. Now, where should I look? She asked herself. After a few moments of considering what to do, ensign Fletcher decided to walk around the whole ship. Although Data was most often seen at the helm station on the Enterprise's bridge, Grace knew that at present he was not on bridge duty. It was Wesley Crusher who had disclosed that information to her, for which she was grateful.

She spun on her heels, just in time to catch sight of a yellow and black blur disappearing around a corner. She realised it was Geordi La Forge. "Commander La Forge!" She called down the vast grey coloured corridor. When she realised there was no response, she walked quickly to the location where she estimated Geordi to have gone. She was relieved to find that she had estimated correctly, as if she had not been so successful in finding him, it would surely mean that she would have to look for him in another place. She simply did not have the time to do so as her shift was due to start in less than an hour and she always preferred it if she could be early.

Once she had reached her destination she walked up to La Forge who was busy analysing and recording the output of the starship's state of the art warp drive. The warp drive could reach almost unimaginable speeds of warp 9.6, and was the starship's primary and most efficient method to travel the tremendous distances involved in interstellar travel. The warp coils in the nacelles created a subspace displacement field which 'warps' the space around the ship allowing it to travel on a spatial distortion, thus propelling it faster than the speed of light. As well as having one of the best warp drives in operation, the Enterprise also had an impulse drive, which was capable of reaching up to half of light speed, for use when dealing with smaller distances and when in stellar systems. RCS thrusters were also another method of propulsion that the Enterprise was able to use.

The Enterprise was one of the best; and considered by many to be the best, ship in the fleet. Geordi found it a very big privilege to be in charge of the heart and soul of this simply magnificent example of engineering; the warp core. "Commander La Forge?" She asked.

"Yeah, I'll be with you in," he typed something quickly on his PADD, after glancing briefly at the readings he smiled gladly and full of relief; everything was working normally, "one moment." After putting his PADD down on the engineering console that was nearest to him he turned around to see who had wanted to speak with him. "Oh, ensign Fletcher, what can I do for you?" He asked politely.

Grace nervously held her hands behind her back. "I was wondering if you knew where lieutenant commander Data was." She asked as politely as she could.

"Any particular reason?" He asked her, whilst he was recording more information and readings on his PADD. His fingers were moving in rapidly, stabbing motions, which were necessary so he could keep up with the new information being read by the ship's computer which was then instantly feeding that data to his PADD at colossal speeds.

She stepped forward, "Oh, well... "She cleared her throat "... Nothing important."

"If you want, I could send a message to him. I shouldn't be too long here." He frowned at the readings his PADD was displaying him. "ensign McIntyre, check the radiation output levels." He called out.

The young, however, intelligent ginger haired officer turned around and replied, "Output levels are normal, sir."

"That was weird. Its probably just my PADD playing up again." He walked over to a panel that had a spare PADD on top of it and he picked up and use it to scan the radiation output levels. They were fine. "Hmm..." He pondered. "Anyway, sorry about that, what was it that you wanted again?"

Grace had been daydreaming whilst this minor disruption in engineering was taking place. She was thinking about what she could say to Data if and when she finally had a chance to talk to him. "Oh, I... erm... I just wanted to know where Data was."

"Oh, sure. I think should be on the bridge. That is where he usually is."

Grace's hopeful facial expression soon faded; she had yet to be given full bridge clearance and was only allowed access to the bridge, at present, during security breaches and when all hands had been called to battle stations.

"I can check for you if you want, though. I'm not quite myself today." He asked the computer for the present location of Data and the computer instantly replied that he was in his quarters. "Good thing I checked, huh?"

Grace nodded and made a small, quiet noise which denoted that she agreed with his analysis.

"Otherwise you would have been on your way to the bridge." He chuckled.

"Thanks, commander." Ensign Fletcher conveyed her appreciation and then proceeded to the deck where his quarters were situated. She wasn't entirely sure if she had remembered the exact location correctly. She knew that they were located on the outer side of the saucer section, as was custom for all officers of a high rank. Grace, herself, being only an ensign, had to share her quarters with her friend and fellow officer, Sarah Saunders.

"Grace!" A high pitched voice called out to her; it was not coming from far away. The sound marginally alarmed her and she twisted round to see Sarah waving at her, moving her arms in small, circular motions.

"Uh uh?" Grace asked bluntly, inadvertently adding the precursor for the conversation to continue, despite wanting to avoid the possibility of carrying on the discussion any further.

Sarah walked over to her and began to quiz her on whether or not she had had a chance to speak with Data. "So?.." She gesticulated with her hands, as if attempting to elaborate on her unwanted point.

Grace moaned, breathing out perhaps a little louder than she had intended, resulting in a considerable amount of the officers working in the engineering room to turn away from their workstations in order to see what the disruptive and annoying noise was related to. "I haven't talked to him... yet." She added.

"I thought you said that you were going to, as soon as you had left Ten Forward." Saunders displayed a confused look on her face.

Grace sighed. "I did, yes. But, as I didn't know where exactly 'he' was, I thought it would be best to ask Geordi if he knew."

"Ask Geordi what?" The chief engineer walked over, pushing his VISOR up, further up his small nose.

Grace turned to face him, unsure of what to say in response to the commander's question. Looking at her friend's perplexed and struggling, Sarah decided she would step in. "Oh, nothing interesting, commander," she clarified for him.

Geordi La Forge seemed to be happy with that particular response and he continued on with his work.

Sarah Saunders recommenced the conversation she had initiated with ensign Grace Fletcher, who obviously had no desire whatsoever to talk any more. "When are you going to finally talk to him?" She asked, impatiently.

"What is this? The Spanish inquisition?" Grace exclaimed, but she soon had a change of heart once she noticed her friend's disheartened and slightly insulted facial expression. "Sorry." She rounded off her question with an apology.

"Don't be silly." ensign Saunders dismissed Grace's apology. "I don't mind, really. But," she continued, "I must ask. When will you talk to him?"

Grace estimated that more than half of the crew members who were now working in main engineering had heard hers and the persistent ensign's conversation. "I talked to Geordi to ask him if he knew where Data was, as I've just said, and he said he'd be in his quarters. So, that's where I am going to go. Have you finished asking the questions now?" She moaned.

"Yes, yes." Sarah replied, before turning back to her assigned place in main engineering and sighing as she thought of her friend's desire to talk to this...being. She didn't really know what to call Data. Artificial life form? Android, or, perhaps, robot? Could she call him a 'man', like Grace does? She didn't think so, at least not yet. She found it weird, although she didn't like to admit it, that a completely synthetic, inorganic... creation could be serving on the bridge on the USS Enterprise, which was one of the best ships in not only Starfleet, but in the galaxy too.

Grace ran through, in her mind, the number of decks on the ship. She knew that deck one housed the captain's ready room, the bridge and all the many conference rooms and that on all the other earlier decks there was the cargo bay, main shuttle-bay, ship's stores and interrogation facilities. She highly doubted that any of the crew's quarters would be located there; hers were on deck nine. She deduced that of the grand total of forty two decks, the place that would be most likely to find Data's quarters would be from either deck seven to deck fourteen.

So, she used this information and walked along the corridor until she reached the nearest turbo lift. She stepped into it and waited for the door to close, which happened almost instantaneously, this slight hiss of which made her jump ever so slightly. She then walked along the corridor. It was grey and had numerous subtle splashes of faint orange. The walk would have been very dull if it had not been for the infinite beauty of the stars streaking passed, clearly visible trough the large, floor to ceiling windows. Nonetheless, every single time she walked too close to the window she had an underlying feeling that would sit in the bottom of her stomach, telling her that she might fall out. Of course, it was completely and utterly ridiculous, but she still thought about it. Not that it affected her that much any more.

Grace's face suddenly lit up when she remembered where Data's personal quarters were located. She knew they were located on deck eight, only one deck above hers. She recalled seeing on the Okudagram that lieutenant commander Geordi La Forge had shown here earlier, whilst in engineering, that there was the number 0905, very near to counsellor Troi and commander Riker's quarters. She headed for room 0905 and pressed the button on the comm panel just outside the entrance door, exhaling and inhaling alternatively. "Lieutenant commander Data?" She asked, nervously.

"Yes. Enter." Came the android's bland, yet somehow calm voice which was incredibly hard to distinguish over the high level volume of the classical music blaring.

Grace waited for the door to slide open and she walked in. as soon as she had, Data ordered the computer to turn off the disruptive music. "I like classical music too," she stated, trying to find some rare possibility of common ground that she and him could share. Grace didn't particularly care for classical music, she, herself, was more into rock music. But, she wasn't going to tell Data that.

"With regards to my musical preferences, I to, tend to opt for classical music, especially by those such as Bach and Mozart."

Grace nodded, and exhaled once more as she prepared herself for explaining the real reason that she had come to his personal quarters. "Data," she asked, "I was wondering if you would be able to give me some advice..." she trailed off, for no reason which she could even attempt to deduce.

The android asked for a clarification.

"Well... erm... I have a technical paper due in very soon which will determine whether or not I'll make it to the rank of ensign and I thought you could... read it?" She half asked the question and half stated a fact. "To, you know, check it. I mean, if you're not busy or anything."

"Do you have the paper with you?" Data asked.

Grace looked behind her quickly and swore under her breath. Oh shit. She no longer had anything that could act as a precursor for spending some time with him. She turned back around to face him, "No, I must have left it in my quarters." She replied. "My mind's like a sieve today."

Data obviously did not understand the analogy but after a brief search of his databases, he soon learnt what it mean and his facial expression changed ever so slightly. It was somewhere between a twitch and slight shudder. Grace guessed it was just Data's way of expressing the fact that he now understood what she had said.

"If you do not have the paper with you, the computer will have it stored. Would you like me to access it digitally?"

"Please." Grace walked over to Data who was standing by the computer console that was in his quarters, which, apart from the small pot plant in the corner and the few paintings on canvases, were very Spartan. "You're lucky." She observed.

Data offered no visible reply and her continued to search the ship's computer for her scientific paper.

"You've actually got windows in your quarters." Grace continued.

"Do your quarters not have any windows?" Data asked as he brought her paper on to the computer's main screen.

"No, you see, as an ensign, I have to share. Although, I do share with my friend, so its not all that bad I guess. I love looking at the stars streak past; this is a spectacular view." She looked in amazement at the many balls of light that sped past the windows as the Enterprise travelled at maximum warp. "I often think how many stars will have planets. I mean, I know there are other Earth-like planets out there, but its just so fascinating."

"Ensign Fletcher," Data spoke again, "Your paper is of excellent quality and it is my belief that you will achieve the rank of lieutenant commander if the testing is based on the results from this piece of work in particular."

"Thank you." Grace squealed with excitement. "So, maybe I'll be able to get quarters with windows." She smiled.

Data turned to face her. "That does seem to be a possibility."

Grace thought to herself about whether or not she should stay longer in an attempt to try and get to know the android operations officer better. On the other, hand, she mused, she had no idea whatsoever about what she could say to him. Did he even have interests? "I... erm... these... paintings are really good, commander." She gestured to one of the many paintings that decorated his personal quarters. It was most definitely abstract and consisted of mainly white squares with squares of other colours and sizes scattered around in between.

"It is called 'Tableau I with Red, Black, Blue and Yellow', from the early 20th century of Earth." Data added some factual detail for a response.

"Oh, yeah..." Her voice trailed off; for she had no real interest in art, although she did appreciate it. "Its by erm..." She paused, trying to use the time of silence in a feeble attempt to think about the few famous painters she knew. Of which, she knew very little about. The only artists she had heard of were Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh and Salvador Dali. However, none of those people could has been responsible for an abstract, confusing and plain piece of work, much like this one. She mused for a little while longer, then after thoroughly searching her brain for further, however minute, clues she remembered that one artists she recognised that could have possibly created this odd painting. "...Picasso?.." Her statement morphed in to a question.

Data raised a pale, white, yet non-criticising finger and pointed it in the direction of the nervous young ensign. "Although the painting appears to be of very abstract design, the man who painted it was a Dutchman called Piet Mondrian."

"Now, I see it." She clicked her fingers and sighed; expressing some sort of relief. "Its all in the... lines..." She cursed herself for saying what she had just said. They way she was going about trying to spend more time with lieutenant commander Data, anyone passing or observing her actions would think that she had been simply put up to it; that she could not care less. That assumption was wrong, Grace assured herself that she was just nervous and her nerves were definitely beginning to get the better of her.

Data, in his usual manner of conveying the level of his understanding of situations at hand, cocked his head towards the left slightly and his face very mildly contorted into an expression of confusion and abashment. He gave no easily audible response.

Grace suddenly had a recollection of a conversation that she and counsellor Deanna Troi had engaged in not that long ago. At the time, it seemed to be just irrelevant small talk, but now, Grace saw her chance and used it to her advantage. Deanna Troi and her had been talking, in general, about their personal likes and dislikes. Somehow, Grace was not entirely sure exactly why, Data's fondness for painting began to leak into their confabulation. She recalled how the ship's Betazoid counsellor had told her that her favourite piece of artistic creation attributed to lieutenant commander Data was of something very much akin to a wormhole. Deanna, herself, had never actually seen a wormhole but she added it to her description of Data's painting as William Riker had once told mentioned to her some rather dull information about a wormhole he saw whilst working as an ensign on the USS Pegasus. Deanna highly doubted that the encounter commander Riker had told her about was actually true, nonetheless, she still remembered it.

When Grace looked at the painting, she liked to think of it as the sun peaking defiantly through the clouds that darkened the majority of the painting. "This one is better, though." She said, nodding in the direction of the painting that Deanna likened to a wormhole.

"Thank you." Data responded to her, showing an obviously programmed look of gratitude on his pale face.

"It must have take you a long time." She stated, carefully taking in the neatness and clarity of the painting.

Data stepped forward and began to to study and scrutinize the piece of art in question. "It took me approximately four point two three hours to complete."

"Very precise." Grace observed at a medium volume. "I though it would surely have taken much longer than that." She then hastily added, "Not that I think you're incapable of doings so in such little time."

"Chief O'Brien's reaction was much the same. I do recall him telling me that he once attempted to create a painting but it took much longer than what is considered to be the average for him to finish it."

"How long?" Grace asked.

Data paused momentarily, allowing his memory banks enough time to gather the information that was asked of him. It didn't take very long. "Records show that he was serving on board the USS Rutledge, as an enlisted crewman. That was in 2346."

"That's over twenty four years ago." Grace quickly closed her mouth, after realising that she had a rather unpleasant, unattractive gormless expression on her face. "It took him twenty years to finish a painting?" She let out a short but sweet cackle of laughter.

"It appears so."

Something critical crossed Grace's mind. What was it? She knew it was most definitely something of paramount importance, but she couldn't quite remember exactly what it was. Geordi La Forge certainly wasn't the only crew member who didn't feel quite their self today. All of a sudden, she remembered what it was. She must be almost due for her shift! A dark shadow of foreboding crept across her usually bubbly face and she gasped. She did not want to be late. Just to be sure, she resolved to ask Data to clarify what the time was. "Do you have clock in your quarters, commander?" A worried expression grew on her face.

"I do not, however, if you should like me to tell you the time-"

The ensign interrupted him, leaving him with a perplexed and uncertain expression plastered on his white face. "Yes," She replied hurriedly, ahead of closing her premature response with as polite a word she could think of, "please."

Data's head jerked, but it was hardly visible. The change it made to his facial expression were negligible. "The time, at present, is 2100 hours. Would you like a more precise determination?" He offered, cordially.

"No, thank you, commander. 2100 hours is fine." She then spun on her heel and began to walk towards the door. Just a few feet away from it, she stopped in her stopped in her tracks and turned to face the commander. "Oh, and sorry for interrupting you." She apologized sarahfully. Catching sight of Data nod, to show that he had accepted her apology, she continued to exit from his personal quarters and jumped, once more, and the sound of the automatic doors slide close behind her as she stepped into the vast grey corridor of deck eight.

The realisation that her shift started in less than ten minutes caused a sharp chill to travel down her

spine. Never, in her five year career in Starfleet had she ever been late for a meeting. Not whilst on assignment as a cadet working on the Nebula-class starship, the USS Phoenix. She did not intend to even mark a blemish on her entirely perfect attendance and punctuality record. Now that lieutenant commander Data had read through the final draft of her engineering paper, she knew that her chances of being promoted to ensign were considerably greater than she had previously expected.

Grace Fletcher made it to main engineering with only seconds to spare. Once there, she began to start with her work and began to carefully study the plasma injectors, which seemed to be operating normally. She was very grateful that her present assignment in engineering was not one that required huge effort and undertaking. She could easily operate a tricorder and analyse the results that the plethora of Okudagrams in the room whilst the main fraction of her brain was fixed on resolving the long withstanding issue concerning her relationship, or to put it better, lack of relationship with Data.

Whilst she was waiting for the ship's computers to collect and display the information on the many brightly lit Okudagrams, Grace felt a hand on her shoulder. She followed it up and saw that it was ensign Saunders. "Oh, it's you." Grace exclaimed sarcastically.

"I'll just leave then, shall I?" Saunders pointed to the door and grinned.

"I thought you wanted to know how it went with Data." Grace set the focus. "To be honest, it didn't really go all that well. Not as well as I had been hoping, anyway." She looked glumly at the dark grey floor.

Sarah Saunders put her hands on her hips. "Come on then, spill." She encouraged her friend and fellow crew member.

"I went over to talk to him and we somehow got talking about paintings and Picasso..."

"Right," Sarah nodded her head slowly, not entirely sure if she understood where Grace was going with this, "right."

"Anyway, getting to the point," Grace continued, "I asked him to read through that paper I had to do, you know, to determine whether I was capable" of becoming an ensign."

Else Saunders shifted her hands from her hips and folded her arms. "How did it go? Did he say it was good?" She asked, with a combination of intrigue and worry for her friend.

"He said it was good, really good, but I didn't actually get a chance to talk to him properly."

"Properly?"

"Yeah, I mean, about if he could, you know," her voice lowered to a barely audible whisper, "have any feelings for me."

"Aw, don't beat yourself up, Grace. I'm sure you'll get a chance to talk to him." She reached out and put a reassuring hand on her colleague's shoulder.

"Thanks." Grace managed to hold a faint smile. It was delicate, nonetheless, it was just about distinguishable as being a smile.

Sarah held out her arms. "Do you need a hug?" She asked. It was rare for her to 'offer' a hug as she was not the sort of woman who would enjoy talking about the contents of her wardrobe, more

regarding her winnings in the many chess games that would quite often be happening on the Enterprise.

"Uhuh." Grace replied. Pulling herself out of the short-lived embrace, she made an observation. "Its coming up to 2130 hours."

Sarah needed more information. "And?"

"Isn't it the chess tournament today?"

"So it is." She slapped her forehead, obviously annoyed with herself. "How could I have forgotten?"

Grace waved her off as she hurried out of engineering. "See you later." Tapping her fingers on the Okudagram, she pondered about the day so far. It was night, but she was on a starship some dozens of light years away from Earth, so what exactly did constitute 'night'? Grace had no idea whatsoever as to why she was thinking about mindless things such as this, but she had nothing better to do. All her shift required her to was make sure that the plasma injectors were functioning as they should be, which they were.

Ensign Grace Fletcher' shift ended at 2300 hours. If she was back on her much missed home planet, Earth, she would surely have been fast asleep. She hurriedly made her way from deck thirty six, the location of main engineering to the nearest turbo lift. Luckily, it was not too far away. She instructed the computer to send her to deck eight.

Her and Sarah's personal quarters differed greatly from lieutenant commander Data's, not only on the basis of size, for Data's where much larger, but in design, too. Data's quarters were very bland, despite his effort to increase the aesthetics of the room with numerous paintings, shrubbery and musical instruments. In contrast, ensign Saunders and Fletcher' quarters were colourful and bright and seemed very crowded. However, that perception of the room being is often put down to the most obvious reason, which is that the quarters are simply too small. This lack of space was one of the reasons that Grace had been longing for the promotion to lieutenant. Of course, she wanted to be promoted simply to prove to herself that she could do it, but an increase in rank would also mean that she would get allocated her own, private quarters. Her and Sarah had grown close, as they had been sharing quarters for just over two years and, up until the last few months, they had been working in engineering. The sudden, unexpected change in shift times meant that they no longer shared assignment times, expect on very rare occasions.

"Increase light intensity to fifteen percent." She ordered the computer quietly. Instantly, the computer complied and the room began to brighten, to some extent. She promptly changed into her night clothes and clambered in the bed in the room adjacent to the room compartment in which Sarah Saunders was sleeping. As she did so, she instructed to computer do decrease the lght intensity completely. It was now pitch black. Despite it having been a long day and the fact that she was very tired, Grace could not seem to get to sleep. Occasionally, she would drift off for a few minutes, but she would always wake up again and again. Sighing, she sat opened her eyes fully, rubbing them. She didn't understand why she was unable to fall asleep.

She kept running over again and again, in her already confused head about what to say to Data, when and if she ever got the chance to finally talk to him again. She didn't have any other options; she was in her mid-twenties and had only ever had one steady boyfriend, which was back at Starfleet Academy. That was Andy Summers. She knew it was best to try and forget about him, so she always tried her hardest to do exactly that.

Was Data even capable of feeling? Grace asked herself, causing more and more ideas and thoughts to whirl around her head. Grace was certainly no expert in robots or in cybernetics, but she did have common sense. No android being could possibly be so advanced that they have the ability to distinguish between different feelings, to react to them and to physically feel them, for themselves. Nonetheless, she had always liked to think of herself as a positive person, one who always looks on the bright side. Serving with Starfleet had reminded her that one moment life can be with you, and the very next it can be cruelly snatched away from you. Never to be seen again. She had seen her friends and crew mates die; some of them dying noble deaths, but others dying unimportant, insignificant and meaningless deaths. She wanted her death to have meaning, even if it is only to a small degree.

She rubbed her face gently yet vigorously to try and remind herself that she had to look forward, always. Data was a competent, observant and respectful individual, but Grace knew he was something more underneath. His ability to concentrate, even under great pressure, was admired by many, if not, all of the officers assigned to the USS Enterprise.

Data was the only person she had ever been attracted to, since Andy. Generally, she found all the other men serving with Starfleet to be slightly pompous and arrogant. These less desirable qualities and characteristics were quite common with officers serving on the Enterprise. This was almost definitely due to the fact that it was one of the best ships and was envied by many, including the Romulans.

Sarah Saunders was always telling her that Andy Summers had a soft spot for her, but Grace tried not to think about it. She didn't really like Andy that much and found him to be pretentious, extremely narcissistic and generally rude. His ignorance made her skin crawl and she certainly was not fond of his company, either. Ever since her days at the Academy, Grace had been constantly pursued by Andy. It wasn't harassment, it was just simply very vexatious. Sometimes, she found Andy to be amusing, as he was always the practical joker. More recently, however, he had been reprimanded for various reasons on multiple occasions. He was incredibly close to being completely withdrawn from assignment on board the Enterprise and many considered him to be extremely lucky that Starfleet haven't already taken any evasive action.

Maybe, Grace thought, I could... help him to feel...


	3. Kidnapping

"Most curious." The bleached expression of the android exhibited no further distinguishable clues as he expressed his opinions. His appearance remained unchanged and his face offered no illustration of what he would be feeling; if synthetic organisms such as himself could even harbour the most simple of feelings. If he were human, his mind would almost certainly become awash with anxiety, calamity, apprehension and desperation. A cool shudder would surely trickle down his spine, making his entire body convulse in disconsolation and would become aware of a warm liquid cascading down his forehead, till it dropped to the floor. Contrary to what one might instantly expect the liquid to be, that perception is incorrect. The liquid would not be nearly as salty as a tear; it was perspiration. In despair, the android, if human, would be overcome with emotions. Regardless of the fact that he was considered to be the most advanced artificial life-form in active service, and in all of recorded history, the android could not feel.

Notwithstanding, this android was not human, despite the plethora of creative and innovative efforts he had undertaken in an attempt to think, live and feel like humans do, he never achieved his dream and now, given the present unsettling circumstances, he was beginning to think that his dream would just drift farther and farther away until it become one with the vast vacuum that represented outer space.

However, the android was different to the large majority of the other androids in service and that were indeed operational in the galaxy. The creator, and so called 'father' of this utter and complete masterpiece of technology, cybernetics and robotics went by the name Dr Noonian Soong and, as of recent times, is considered to be lost and, for all intents and purposes, dead.

Regardless of the Soong-type android's inability to feel and experience the range of emotions that the majority of humans, he was considered to be a pioneer. He was the first and only such being to enter Starfleet. Throughout his twenty two year involvement in Starfleet Academy, the android was the subject of a considerable amount of antics, cleverly carried out by other cadets. Nonetheless, the Soong-type android's ultimate storage capacity was equivalent to eight hundred quadrillion bits and was equipped with a total linear computational speed most commonly rated at sixty trillion operations per second. In addition to being an avant-garde, the android with the positronic brain was viewed by many, by those he knew and those he didn't know, as the most responsible, intelligent and rational person that they had heard of.

The room that he was seemingly imprisoned in was dark and had no windows whatsoever, preventing even the smallest and most insignificant of light beams from penetrating the thick, grey walls. The size of the room was proving to be extremely difficult and burdensome to determine as the absence of apertures in the room restricted the ability to see, even though the android's eyes could easily adjust the brightness and contrast of his surroundings, it would only really come in useful when dealing with extreme light, not extreme dark.

As a deluge of thoughts swept through his positronic brain, all being processed and analysed in less than 0.78 seconds, his focus began to drift. It surprised him to some agreeable extent that he had quite obviously failed to notice one significant thing that might disclose where he was; he was tied to a chair.

As he struggled and strived to free himself from the extremely thin, yet durable and strong poly alloy rope that held his hands behind his back he could not liberate himself from these unconventional, yet high-calibre shackles.

He gathered he must have been toiling with the aim of escape with more strength than what he had originally thought. This particular evaluation of the situation came to light due to the fact that the chair began to wobble and creak under the immense stress and pressure and finally toppled over, landing towards the general direction of what he presumed to be the right. As the chair fell down to the hard floor, the repercussions of the impact were quite considerable. There was no pain, but only slight evidence of shock visible on the android's otherwise completely expressionless face.

Given no choice in the matter, the android cast his inquisitive gaze upon the hard, cold floor that could easily have been mistaken for some sort of hellish bottomless pit, one which might lead to Hell, itself. He then proceeded to shift his increasingly perplexed stare and directed it towards the door. Dr Noonian Soong had successfully incorporated superior hearing abilities and had increased the sensitivity of the android's ears and his was absolutely sure of himself when he estimated that he had heard a slight, indiscriminate noise originating from behind the door.

However, after a few more uneventful moments had passed, the noise occurred no more, and the artificial life forms concluded that the strange noise was not worth investigating further so he set about trying to use logical processes to deduce the exact location of where he was and if and how he could get out.

But, almost as soon as he had begun to think of an escape route, a clamour occurred, causing him superficial alarm. The noise, he surmised, was of a bolt sliding across, thus allowing entry or exit. He gathered that the bolt was made of metal and was of considerable size. As soon as the bolt had traversed from one side to the other, another noise became apparent. It was a loud thud; clearly the sound of a large, behemoth of a metal door closing abruptly and violently. This noise elicited a response of both curiosity and of trivial consternation.

Nevertheless, the chain of strange noises did not cease, but instead it continued. The final sound was of heavy, dense boots thumping against the tough ground which was much like wet concrete. The footsteps grew closer and closer and, within ten seconds or so, the two boots came into view and the captive android studied them long and hard, to look for any lead as to who they might belong to. His uncomfortable and unconventional position laying secured to the fallen chair severely restricted the broadness of his line of sight.

"Its no use, dear brother." An arrogant, grandiose and rude voice whispered, referring to his captive's frivolous attempts to free himself from the strong chains, as the shady figured bent down so he could focus a greater amount of his undivided attention to the ever more perplexed, yet intrigued Data.

"Lore..." Data came to the realisation that the safety of the entire crew of the Enterprise, not to mention the numerous civilians which called the ship their home, and, quite possibly the galaxy was at stake. He instantly had a sense of something similar to fear for the assured security of everyone he knew.

Lore walked around him in continuous precise, circular motions. Placing his hands behind his back, he spoke a command, "Increase light intensity to fifteen percent." It seemed that, as soon as the words had left his artificial mouth, the brightness of the room escalated somewhat and Lore could at last look upon his 'brother's' face for the first time in over two years, when the Enterprise discovered his dismembered body and rebuilt him; shortly thereafter, the crew ordered the transportation of him into open, deep space. Once the computer, which the instruction much had been aimed at, had obeyed and carried out the necessary task, Lore crouched down beside Data's head once again and sighed. The sigh was very self-explanatory; it was one which denoted dismay and disappointment.

Whilst tutting, Lore expressed his discontent towards Data. "I have to say, I'm a little annoyed that you fell for that cheap trick." He stared, disconcertingly, into Data's eyes.

Data furrowed his brow, showing Lore that he was clearly unsure of what exactly he was referring to.

Lore stepped forward. For Data, it seemed like looking into a mirror, except there was one notable difference, and that difference was that the android staring back at him was pure evil. Just simply full of complete and utter concentrated malevolence.

"I am curious, Lore, how did you achieve the great feat of transporting me to this location?" Data was not scared, as he simply was incapable of doing so, but was just very intrigued.

Lore smirked, concentrating hard on the captive android. "It was easy."

"I should require you to elaborate on that statement."

"What makes you think that I should tell you?" Lore demanded, dominantly and impertinently, whilst pointing an intrusive, critical pale finger only a short distance away from Data's expectant face, which bore an uncertain expression.

"Nothing 'makes' me think that you should tell me anything Lore, it was simply a request." Data replied bluntly.

Lore sighed and pulled up a loose chair which he placed alongside the fallen chair on which Data was still attached. He then proceeded to answer his brother's question. "The Romulans and I have a very strong alliance. In exchange for Federation knowledge, they handed over their state of the art transporter device. Of course, they took some persuasion, but I eventually got the message across." The assurance and impudence in his voice was echoed by his calm expression.

Data analysed Lore's words, raising a quizzical eyebrow. "Have you betrayed, to the Romulans, confidential Federation intelligence?"

"I have, not that you and your little Starfleet friends can do anything about that now." He mocked Data who was still laying helplessly on the ground.

Data had another question. "The Enterprise was travelling at impulse speed when I estimate you transported me here. It is to my knowledge that the distance between us was greater than the distances that is conceivable with a transporter. How...?"

Lore cut him off, laughing cruelly. "You're like a dog with a bone, aren't you?" Lore leant back in the chair as he defiantly crossed his arms. "All right," he declared, "I'll tell you. The Romulans recently engaged in a conflict with the Borg; as they lost; the Borg were forced to hand over some of their technology."

"The Borg do not negotiate." Data replied candidly.

"They do..." Lore defied the opposing statement, "It just takes some time." He sneered.

"I still do not understand how the Romulan transporter enabled you to transport me here. How did you obtain the knowledge of where I was?" Data asked.

"Another question?" Lore sighed, exaggeratedly. "Your transporter recognition signature is very much the same as mine. All I had to do was reprogram the transporter to scan for a life signature like mine, and it detected yours."

Data mused over what information that Lore had just disclosed to him; it was an ingenious idea, to take advantage of the Romulans and of the Borg. Nonetheless, it was also carried with it a plethora of risks of varying degrees of implications. "What was the purpose of you transporting me here, Lore?" Data asked him, captivated.

"You'll find out..." he replied, grinning, his voice full of impudence. He added, "...although I doubt it." Lore smirked and his face displayed a look of contentment and pleasure.

Data raised a finger, as if he was about to say something, but promptly retracted it after seeing that Lore obviously was not listening at all and stood up, kicking the chair across the room in a violent fit of incandescent rage. Just as Lore was walking away from Data, he quickly returned to where Data was and lifted his chair up. "You're welcome." He spat.

"Lore?" Data called out to his delirious and foolish brother. "What do you intend to do?" He asked.

Lore spun around on his heel, his face consumed by annoyance and animosity. "Why, dear brother, I intend to find that emotion chip."

"I know of no emotion chip." Data responded frankly.

Lore stepped forward. "Don't lie to me!" He yelled through gritted teeth. "I know you know where it is."

"Lore, I do not." Data had previously believed himself to be physically incapable of deceiving another individual, but this time, his ethical programme had obviously overridden it. The safety of the Federation, and, indeed everyone in the quadrant, relied on whether Data would reveal the truth to the insanely motivated Lore.

Lore drew his head back marginally, then spat on the ground. "Don't!" He warned Data, his eyes entirely consumed by blind fury.

"Lore..." Data began to advise his brother. But it was too late. He had seen Lore recalibrate the stolen Romulan transporter mechanism; his fingers visibly dancing on the keypad as he hastily punched in the coordinates of where he had beamed Data down from; adjusting the instructions in accordance with the distance and location discrepancies that might occur as the Enterprise was continually moving.

As Data helplessly watched Lore punch in the last few calculations and press the last few buttons, the cognizance that he could do nothing to prevent whatever it was that Lore was about to do crept into his mind. He could do nothing.

Suddenly, Lore's outline began to become blurred and almost indistinguishable as tiny star-like objects started to shimmer and sparkle, covering every single inch of his body. A blue flash occurred and in an instant, Lore was gone. Data knew all too well where his deranged brother had gone, and it was most definitely the USS Enterprise.

Instead of hanging his head in shaming and thinking 'woe is me', like the majority of other humanoids, Data started to devise a feasible strategy in which he could safety and effectively return to the Enterprise and track down Lore before his behaviour worsened and became completely psychotic.

Data knew that, despite the plethora of extremely advanced technology that the crew of the USS Enterprise-D had access too, the Romulan transporter would be almost impossible to trace. The Romulans were recognised across the great expanse of the galaxy for their exceptional cloaking devices and the captive android had the solemn, yet strong knowledge that this cloaking technology would be almost certainly incorporated into the stolen transporter mechanism that Lore had obtained. This would mean that no one could have even the faintest idea that someone had beamed aboard their ship, without permission, a disadvantage that would most definitely harbour only a negative outcome.

Data did, however, find some degree of respite with the knowledge that the emotion chip that he had on board the Enterprise was not of the highest quality. Data, himself, had engineered it because, after all of the many years that he had spent serving with humans, seeing them laugh, cry and love, Data wondered what it would feel like to experience these things. The emotion chip was not very sophisticated and Data did not have even the slightest amount of insight that it would work properly. Thus, if Lore was able to successfully locate the emotion chip, then it may be as good as worthless and Lore would not be able to be in possession of that which he craved for with such intensity.


	4. Attack

The transporter chief was called Patrick O'Donnell and he had held the rank of lieutenant commander for a much longer time than he would have hoped; in fact, it was over seven and a half years. Of course, there was no denying it; he liked what he did. He had always thought it was incredibly fascinating how mankind and indeed an abundance of other races, were genuinely able to transport a living, breathing organism from one location to another almost instantaneously, without the subject having to mundanely travel the distance.

As far back as he could even care to remember, his family had been involved with Starfleet one way or the other. He seemed to recall his father once telling him that one of his ancestors went to college with Henry Archer; who pioneered the creation of the Warp Five complex in the early 22nd century. His son was Jonathan Archer, who grew up to be the first ever captain of any vessel to carry the name Enterprise, representing Starfleet. His ship, the NX-01 was the fastest, most sophisticated and most advanced starship in service originating from Earth.

O'Donnell felt very privileged to be working with some of the best officers that Starfleet had to offer, most notably Jean-Luc Picard, who now held to rank of captain. Lieutenant commander O'Donnell had quite often found himself of several practical jokes during his time at Starfleet Academy because his classmates did not like the fact that he was better at most things than they were.

He had recently been offered the position of captain aboard a small sized starship called the USS Akagi, with the registry number of NCC-62158. Although the offer had been very tempting to the young transporter chief, he decided he had to decline. O'Donnell had had as much experience working as a command divisions officer as he had working in the engineering division, but he simply felt more at home and more comfortable when he was taking orders from a fellow officer. His place was in the transporter room of the Enterprise.

However, despite his endless passion for his assignment as transporter chief, absolutely nothing could have prepared him for what he saw next and what unfortunate events were about to unfold. As he lifted his head up to stare, full of awe and pride at the main transporter platform a strange flickering sound had started to materialize. It did not take him long to come to the realisation that someone was beaming aboard the Enterprise, without acknowledgement from the captain. As it was with every officer, his first instinct was to wait and try and attempt to solve this mystery rationally. However, there was almost certainly no time whatsoever to proceed logically and reasonably, so he skipped this step and a number of others. He wanted to reach down to where his comm was securely attached to his yellow coloured uniform, but he could not; he felt himself paralysed with feelings of inquisitiveness and of wonder. Who was it that was beaming aboard the Enterprise right at this very moment and how come his instruments returned information to him relying the fact that there was no one who was transporting to them.

He watched as the being, who's atoms had just begun to finish rearranging themselves in the correct order stepped off the transporter platform, and who then placed his hand onto his hip. To the transporter chief's horror, the being was in control of a phaser, one that was set on its maximum, most deadly setting. The chief opened his mouth, as if he was about to say something, but no words were able to escape from his trembling mouth. The being that had just inexplicably transported themselves aboard the USS Enterprise bared a remarkable resemblance to one of the helm officers of the ship; lieutenant commander Data. Could the mystifying being that had just transported aboard be Data? Chief O'Donnell highly doubted it. As he was a high ranking engineering officer, he had had first hand experience when dealing with the android's configuration and positronic brain, so had firm familiarity regarding the fact that the Soong-type android had an ethical program, so would be incapable of such an abusive act. Little did lieutenant commander O'Donnell know; it was not Data who had just beamed aboard... it was his troublesome brother.

The android lifted the phaser up to the appropriate height, aiming it straight at the transporter chief's chest, but moments before he could even fire it, O'Donnell leapt towards him, in an attempt to wrestle the extremely dangerous weapon from the android's strong grasp. His opponent was exceptionally powerful and O'Donnell had to fight back mentally in order to retaliate against the option of surrender, which was seeming ore and more likely as the minutes ticked by.

The android showed no visible signs of immediate, or in fact any, capitulation whatsoever. His accuracy was pin-point and the chief knew that he was indeed fighting a loosing battle. His adversary had strength that was obviously far greater than that of the average human being; him being of artificial intelligence and design. Not only was his android opponent stronger than him, he was also more agile and of considerably higher acumen. The android used this superior dexterity to his advantage by quickly and suddenly changing his position; O'Donnell had no chance of keeping up with him, he was simple the better fighter.

It seemed to the chief that his challenger had received personal training in the art of combat, but he highly doubted this. The opponent's paramount abilities and strengths were almost definitely down to the fact that he had been created, artificially. His body was composed of twenty four point six kilograms of tripolymer composites, eleven point eight kilograms of molybdenum-cobalt alloys and one point three kilograms of bioplast sheeting. His upper spinal support was a poly-alloy and was designed to withstand immense pressure and extreme stress. The configuration of his skull was comprised of a mixture of cortenide and duranium. Nevertheless, he only weighed one hundred kilograms; the average weight for a fully grown man.

Not only did the android possess superior mental and physical capabilities in comparison with O'Donnell, he also had one more advantage. Which was that his mind was simply pure, concentrated evil. Psychotic, deranged and extremely determined; he would not cease until he had found what he was looking for.

Chief O'Donnell charged at the armed intruder, his fist poised carefully in the exact position for a fatal blow to the android's neck. Just as his tensed up hand was about to make contact with the android's pale skin, the opponent lifted up his right arm, and then quickly held a steadfast grasp onto the chief's striking hand. With what appeared to be very little effort, the android gripped onto O'Donnell's wrist, slowly turning it, up until the point when the very loud sound of bones cracking could be heard. This noise did not deter O'Donnell in any way, despite the horrendous, stinging pain that was now constantly shooting up from his forearm and into his shoulders.

During the intense struggle, the android's phaser had been inadvertently strewn upon the greyish coloured floor of the transporter room. Every single time that the android attempted to retrieve, so he could once more be the one with the advantage, chief O'Donnell somehow managed to block his path.

The android's face displayed a quite considerable amount of annoyance, coupled with exasperation. This irritation caused O'Donnell's opponent to kick him promptly in the ribs, leaving the overwhelmed transporter chief reeling from the pain and the despair. Yet, O'Donnell would still not give in, instead, he pulled out his phaser and readied it to shoot the intruder. However, the android had anticipated this move, and, almost as soon as the chief drew out the phaser, he knocked it from his hand.

It was no, once again, hand to hand combat. O'Donnell knew very well that the android had the advantage, and a very great one at that. The chief's expression slowly, but surely, began to drift between dread and desperation as he started to come to terms with the fact that he had let everyone down. He had let the Enterprise down, by not fulfilling all the requirements needed for a transporter chief. He had let Captain Picard down by not being strong, at least not as strong willed as all the other officers. But, what saddened and disheartened him the most was the fact that had let himself down. He felt weak and afraid. Why should he feel sorry for himself, when there was now a dangerous individual on the loose, aboard the ship. This intruder was not even human, and did not even possess the same level of abilities as a human being did. He was stronger, faster, more agile and, perhaps what was the worst factor of all, his heart was full of malice and rage. There seemed to be no softer side, and with it, no chance of reasoning.

In addition to using his supreme adroitness to his advantage, the intruder also exploited his remarkable strength by swiftly drawing his right arm back in a smooth, continuous moving, stopping only when his hard, firm fist made contact with lieutenant commander Patrick O'Donnell's vulnerable skull. As the feel of the heavy blow began to slowly spread around O'Donnell's body he sensed himself becoming numb and he grew cold. Costively, his eyelids began to flutter, uncontrollably, and the dreadful sensation of his already partially bludgeoned head hitting the transporter console ricocheted throughout his frame. He was now lying unconscious with blood leisurely seeping out from his left temple. He was not seriously injured, but every doctor's opinion would be the same; he would most surely suffer from short-term memory loss. He would never even remember what had just taken place during what had started like any other normal day.

Lore smirked at his handiwork and wiped his hands, approvingly. Just as he was about to return his phaser to its rightful position in his back trouser pocket, he appeared to reconsider. He evaluated the consequences if the chief regained consciousness and remembered the recent events that had just unfolded. He found it extremely doubtful that his inferior adversary would be able to recall any of the information, so decided to leave him lying there. He had originally speculated that killing O'Donnell would be a better course of action, but the evidence would be very hard to dispose of in a convenient way.

Now that Lore had successfully undermined and overcome the transporter chief, he refocused his mind on the second part of his plan, which involved him having to pose as Data and continuing to perform his usual bridge duties. The first thing Lore had to do was find and locate Data's quarters. For, without Data's Starfleet uniform, he would almost certainly never be an acceptable and believable pass for his brother. Lore did not have too much trouble in establishing the location of Data's personal quarters, as he had been on board the USS Enterprise-D on a previous occasion. That was when he was transported in to the dark, unforgiving void that constituted outer space, following orders from the captain; Jean-Luc Picard. Lore had his mind set on making Picard, and indeed every other crew member, including his brother.

Once in Data's personal quarters, Lore could move around freely, unlike his movements whilst travelling the distance from the transporter room to his present location. He interfered with many of the artefacts and objects that were present in abundance in Data's quarters. Taking his time to sneer as cold-heartedly as possible at the deluge of paintings that were strewn around the room. He, himself, had never had any respect whatsoever concerning the arts. His mind was too transfixed on the promise of dominance and power, he had no need for engaging in petty, trivial gatherings and celebrations that made up such a large part of the human race. He was not like his brother; he did not want to behave live and feel like a person, he wanted to dominate them.

At last, Lore found the cabinet that he suspected would be most likely to contain the Starfleet issue uniforms. Once he had pulled one of the uniforms off of the single shelf in the wooden commode, he changed into the yellow and black uniform. He walked over to a large, rectangular floor to ceiling mirror and then ostensibly admired himself. He turned around and continued to inspect his physique. He clearly did not think highly of the uniform he was wearing. It certainly did not flatter any part of him and his vain streak was beginning to show through.

Finally, Lore had finished examining himself and paced over to the large, dominant computer workstation towards to corner of the room. He pulled back the chair and sat down, contemplating whether or not he should attempt to try and hack into the ship's computer systems, but he managed to prevent himself from doing so. He gathered that it was probably relatively easy to locate where the attempted hack had originated from, and Lore certainly did not want to take that chance. He noticed that the computer screen was displaying a graphic which denoted that he only had fifteen minutes until his next shift. Data's shifts were of considerably longer time periods as he did not require conventional rest or shore leave, so Lore deduced that he would have to stay on that shift for a long time.

He strutted to the bridge full of confidence, but was very careful not to show too much emotion as he was well aware of the fact that Data had not installed the emotion chip, so would show no feelings whatsoever. Lore, however, found it to be an intensely difficult task to devoid himself of emotions, so only kept the display of them limited, but not completely eradicated.

As he took his place at the helm console of the bridge, he was welcomed by captain Picard, who said, "Ah, Mr Data."

Thankfully, Lore remembered that he was to masquerade as his brother and somewhat nodded his head just as he was sitting down in the large, leather laid-back chair which was positioned behind the helm console.

Lore was marginally unsure of what being the chief operations officer actually meant he was supposed to be doing, but he did possess most of the required knowledge and he picked up further insight by regularly glancing at the officer who was sat next to him.

Commander Riker and captain Picard were discussing whether or not using their tractor beam to deflect an asteroid that more resembled some sort of monolith than a lump of space rock from impacting with a planet was the right thing to do. The planet, Omega IV was uninhabited, with the exception of primitive bacterial organisms who could survive only in pools of boiling methane.

"Bacteria is still a form of life." Deanna Troi represented the spiritual side of the argument. "What if, in millions of years, they evolve to become intelligent beings?" She asked the important question.

Riker paused, thinking deeply, stroking his beard in steady motions. "Yes, but it would not be breaking the Prime Directive would it?"

It was Picard's turn to talk. "That is true, Number One. However, it is not our place to determine when life is significant to be worth saving." He pondered the issue, after sometime, he pointed his right index finger towards the large view screen and uttered a definitive order. "Mr Data, make it so."

Lore raised a quizzical eyebrow, and displayed his confusion to his commanding officer. "Sir?" He asked for a clarification regarding Picard's orders.

Picard couldn't quite believe that lieutenant commander Data needed a simplification of his order, which had always been carried out by all other officers without even e second thought. He sighed, after seeing that the android had the perplexed look still plastered on his face. "Do it." He explained his order.

Lore nodded and then calibrated a clear path for the tractor beam to follow so it could successfully maintain a grip on the rogue asteroid. Seeing that the act was carried out without even a single fault, Lore grinned contentment.

After a few more routine assignments on the bridge had passed without any further consequence, Lore left the bridge and proceeded to return to Data's personal quarters. On his way there, a young, attractive ensign walked up to him. "I just wanted to say," she spoke sweetly, "thank you so much for reading through my report." He smile was charming and lovable and Lore could not seem to alter his gaze from her.

The ensign noticed that the android looked completely blank, so she decided to introduce herself. "Its Grace. Grace Fletcher." She said.

Lore presumed, correctly, that the paper that the ensign was referring to was read by Data, so he decided he had to respond positively. He twitched momentarily, then replied to the ensign's statement of thanks. "Ah..." He let her know that he remembered who she was. "It was no trouble."

"Oh, well, I just wanted to, you know," she paused, beaming, "let you know how grateful I was."

Lore contemplated just simply leaving there and then, but the ensign was very beautiful, so he decided to do something he had never done before; as a girl out. Besides, if he was to be v sure that his mission would success, he would need to get to know the who - and it's crew - from the inside out. "I have no shifts tomorrow," he began, "maybe you and I could talk some more over a drink."

The ensign's expression made it clear that she was attracted to him. "Yes... that would be... great." She stammered. "Say, Ten Forward?"

Lore was unfamiliar with the location that she had just mentioned, nonetheless he agreed because he knew that he would have a better chance of finding the emotion chip he sought after so much and for so long if he was close to someone who was already a trusted and valued member of the Enterprise crew.


	5. Detective work

"How are you, sleepy head?" Dr Beverly Crusher studied her tricorder in great depth as she took samples and analysed them from her latest patient.

The crew member who was lying on the biobed exhaled, very loudly, which caused Dr Crusher to take an insignificant step back. Smelling someone's breath after they have been unconscious for the best part of the day was certainly not the most pleasant of experiences. Nonetheless, Beverly thought to herself, it was all in a day's work. "How long have I been," the patient coughed, covering his mouth with one of his bruised hands, "like this?" He asked, placing his arm back down beside him.

"You mean 'unconscious'?" Dr Crusher, as always, appreciated that many of her patients did not have a lot of medical training, if any, so she was always happy to confirm things.

The patient bit his lip, wincing at the unpleasant, metallic taste of blood that was slowly seeping into his tongue, then nodded in response to the doctor's query.

After studying the readouts of her tricorder in greater depth, Dr Crusher answered the question. "Not that long, in general terms of speaking..." Once he had heard her say these few words, the patient got ready to leap to his feet, eager to get on his way and start back again at work. "... But," she placed her hand on his chest, giving him no choice but to resume his reclined position on the biobed, "given the fact that you were knocked unconscious, I'd say you'll have to stay here for at least another few hours."

The patient looked downcast. "So, you don't think I could be out any time sooner?" He asked the doctor.

"I doubt it." Just as she was about to depart from sickbay, she happened to turn around, by chance, when she saw her patient attempting to get up from the biobed. She walked over to the biobed, where the patient was and advised him against doing what he was about to do. "You've got a broken wrist and a severe concussion."

Transporter Chief Patrick O'Donnell, for that was the name of the patient, moaned, expressing his annoyance.

"I wouldn't act like that if I were you." Dr Crusher waggled a disapproving finger at O'Donnell. "You're lucky that you're injuries aren't all that serious."

"I fail to see how exactly they could be any worse. I have to lie here, like some sort of invalid, for days on end. I've never felt so useless."

Dr Crusher sighed, placing her hands on her hips. "Your attacker was certainly very strong; stronger than the average man is. I'd even dare go as far as to say that he could have fatally injured you." She explained the hard facts to her seemingly ungrateful patient.

"Anyway, I suppose I should thank you." He realised.

"Don't worry. There's no need to. I'm a doctor, and you're the patient. I was just doing my job." She smiled, before walking over to the biobed next to her, where an injured child lay. It wasn't what you would call a serious incident, the child had been playing with his friends when he happened to be unfortunate enough to walk into a door.

"Um, doctor?" O'Donnell called out patiently.

Beverly Crusher sauntered over towards his biobed. "Yes? Is there anything wrong?" A look of worry began to form over her face, like a shadow.

"Oh, no." O'Donnell replied, and the doctor's anxious look became one of serenity and calmness. Almost as soon as Crusher began to proceed away from the biobed, O'Donnell called out again. "Did you say attacker?" As he asked this, his face slightly contorted in order to display anxiety and, in some ways, excitement.

Dr Crusher nodded, in response to his question. "Yes. Why do you ask?" Her expression was inquisitive.

"No reason." He thought for a moment. "Well, um, do you... do you know who the attacker could have been?" He asked what was on his mind.

"I don't think we've got any leads, as yet. I'm sure I could follow it up for you, if you would like me to."

"That's okay. I'm sure I'll be able to remember who it is." His smile told Dr Crusher, somewhat subliminally, that she could continue with her normal, day to day duties as the Enterprise's Chief Medical Officer. So, listening to her instinct, she did just that.

Immediately after the doctor had left, chief O'Donnell still laid still in the biobed. He was wondering who the attacker could have been. "Oh, doctor?" He called out once more, and, as usual, she walked over to him to see what he wanted. "Sorry to disturb you, yet again," he began, "but has commander La Forge managed to figure out where the person who attacked me could have transported up from?"

"I don't think so." Dr Crusher shook her head. She searched her mind to see if she could recall that Geordi had told her anything, but she couldn't seem to find anything that would be of use. "I'll ask him." When she had finished her sentence, she pressed her combage, which was placed expertly on her blue science division uniform, just below the black part of her clothing which was at the top. She then hailed Geordi. "Commander La Forge? If you're not too busy, could you report to sickbay?" For some reason, she didn't finish her request with a 'please' as she usually did. It was probably just being a very hectic day, at least, more hectic than usual.

"Sure, I'll be there right away." In main engineering, Geordi La Forge quickly briefed senior member of staff regarding what to do in his absence, then promptly made his way to sickbay. Once he got there, her walked over to the place where Beverly Crusher was standing. "What is it?" He asked, pausing momentarily to take a look around sickbay. It had been quite a while since he last stepped through these doors.

"Well, this gentleman," she gestured to the biobed that was next to her and La Forge, on which chief O'Donnell lay, "wants to know if you've managed to work out where the person could have transported from. Anyway," she began, "I'll leave you to it. I don't know anything about those transporters, except that I certainly wouldn't want to use one if it wasn't absolutely necessary." Dr Crusher then walked off, in the direction of the Chief Medical Officer's office.

"Dr Crusher told me that you still don't have any leads?" O'Donnell inquired.

La Forge slowly shook his head. "No, not as yet. But, we do know one thing..."

"Yes? What's that?" O'Donnell's face lit up ever so slightly.

"Well, we do know what we don't know."

"Oh."

"What I mean is that we can't tell for sure where the transporter originated from."

O'Donnell sat up in the biobed. As he did so, being very careful not to use his wrist to help push himself up. The last thing he needed was to make his already weak wrist even weaker than it need be. "Why?" He asked.

"Well, it must have had some sort of cloaking mechanism." Geordi concluded. "Unless, of course, no one actually beamed aboard in the first place." Judging by O'Donnell's expression of anger, La Forge realised that saying that last sentence probably wasn't a very wise move. "Sorry, I..." He began, but his apology was promptly cut off by the injured transporter chief. "What?" O'Donnell's otherwise nonchalant expression began to slowly become akin to something of rage. "Are you saying that you think I made this whole thing up?"

"No, no," Geordi interjected, "I'm not saying that at all. I just think its a little weird that someone could transport with out even leaving a single trace, that's all."

"Sorry," O'Donnell quickly made up for his earlier behaviour of simply jumping to conclusions. "Its just been a long day, and I'm tired."

"Picard to La Forge." The captain's assertive voice boomed over Geordi's combadge. Geordi pressed the badge, opening the link. "Yes, captain?"

"Do you have any further leads as to how this transporter left no detectable trace?" Picard's voice was clear and dominant, yet quite plainly anxious.

Although the captain would not have been able to see him, Geordi shook his head. "No, captain, not yet. It just doesn't make any sense." He openly expressed his confusion to the captain. "I don't understand how a transporter mechanism could, for lack of a better word, be 'cloaked'."

"I see." Picard mused over Geordi's analysis.

"Unless of course, there is some sort of technology out there that we don't know about."

"Right."

"It could be the Romulans, I suppose. I mean, I know that they are advanced, but I didn't know they were this advanced." Geordi paused, to enable himself to breath. "The ship's databases don't show any record of any sort of transporter even nearly as advanced as what we could be dealing with here. Facts are facts, transporters leave traces. I don't see any feasible way that you could 'get rid of one'."

"Hmmmm..."

"Sorry I couldn't be of any more help, captain."

Picard brushed off the chief engineer's apology. "Not to worry, commander. Just, keep doing whatever it is that you're doing. It is vital that we find this out. All our attempts to try and find and locate the intruder have been futile. We can only assume that they have left the Enterprise." He paused briefly, before adding, "Picard out."

"I understand. But, if we do find anything, I'll make sure you're the first to know." Geordi La Forge said to O'Donnell, then walked on, back to main engineering.

As he watched lieutenant commander Geordi La Forge proceed on his way back to engineering, O'Donnell lay back down in the biobed, thinking. He did not know of any sort of technology that could do what lieutenant commander La Forge had been describing. Maybe, he had imagined the whole scenario. Still, that hypothesis definitely would not account for all the scars, cuts and bruises he now had, not to mention the broken wrist. None of it made sense. He had no recollection whatsoever as to who the aggressor was, nor did he have any clue as to why they had transported aboard the Enterprise.

He did, however, no one thing, and that was that he was one hundred percent positive that there was only one attacker. It wasn't a gang or rebel group of any kind, it was just one individual. How could one person be able to inflict so much damage? Of course, there were many officers that could deliver the punches and blows as well and as heavily as the mysterious attacker had done, but it wasn't the fact that the blows where so effective. It was more the fact that they were so precise and the aggressor was so very agile. Chief O'Donnell did not know how he could have been so easily overpowered by this single individual. O'Donnell knew that he was certainly not in peak physical condition, but he was fit. Definitely fit enough to enable him to be more than capable of standing his ground during one on one, hand to hand combat.

He ran over in his mind about who the aggressor could be. If he was to think purely on the basis of power, strength and battle tactics, he would have instantly put Klingons into the frame. They were very powerful and could just as easily kill if they were angry enough. But it just did not make any sense at all. Why would the Klingons have any need to sneak aboard a Federation vessel and then attack a member of the crew. Klingons didn't have technology that was even close to being advanced as the technology that was in question now. Besides, Klingon transporters work much the same as Federation transporters. The 'Treaty of Alliance' which was the official agreement that established the alliance between the United Federation of Planets and the Klingon Empire was signed around twenty years ago, so they would have no reason and no motive whatsoever to attack a Federation ship. More to the point, if a member of the Klingon Empire was responsible for the mysterious transporter situation and transporter chief Patrick O'Donnell's injuries, then the possibility of war would indeed be very, very high. It would simply be foolish for a Klingon to do this, so O'Donnell promptly ruled out the possibility of Klingons being responsible, in any way, for this attack.


	6. Hope

Lieutenant commander Data was not yet ready to give up all hope, despite of the fact that he had been sat, tied to the chair for more than a week. If he were human, then he would surely have been dead, but as he was an android, he had no need whatsoever for nutrition of any kind. He did, of course, have chemical nutrients, which were similar in many ways to blood, but he had no need of eating. It was impossible for him to starve of ever become even the slightest bit dehydrated.

Dr Noonian Soong had built Data, and indeed all of the other Soong-type androids with the ability of consuming food. However, the consumption of such substances would be purely for recreational purposes, Data, unlike the majority of the known humanoid races, did not need to eat in order to maintain his strengths and mental capabilities.

For some time now, Data had been attempting to fathom out a feasible and simple method of releasing himself from these shackles. He had taken into account a whole plethora of means of doing so, but had never fully experimented with them. It was times like these that he was thankful that he did not have the abilities to feel the emotions that so many are able to. Maybe having emotions was as much a curse as it was a blessing. It was to be, in some ways, feared instead of treated as though it were to be cherished.

He could only imagine the terrors that would be sweeping through his body; pain, anger, worry, and sadness. Data had never felt sad before, nor had he ever felt any other sort of emotion, but sadness was one that he hoped that he would never have to endure. He wanted to feel happiness, laughter and, above all else, love.

However, regardless of the abundance of thought that were being instilled in his brain, he reminded himself that he was not human, and perhaps he never would be. But he was an android, and as long as he was in fully functioning working order, his duty would be to Starfleet and to the starship Enterprise. There was a dangerous, malevolent and corrupt individual on the loose, and that individual was his brother. No matter how he... felt about his brother, he knew full well that Lore's actions and aims were immoral and he certainly knew of the fact that Lore was absolutely not to be trusted.

The room in which Data was imprisoned was large and all four of the walls were just simply made of bare bricks. The bricks were grey in colour and harboured a certain degree of foreboding and danger within them. There was absolutely being emitted from any discernible source in the room apart from a small lamp which appeared to be trying, and failing, to light up a small, insignificant section of the room. This section seemed to be some sort of desk, a work station. The light caused numerous shadows to swirl about on the walls, hiving the ominous appearance that they were dancing.

Data's mind was almost entirely focused on what his brother, Lore, would be doing on the Enterprise. Would he have already somehow killed the crew? Did he perhaps have captain Picard locked up somewhere? Was he, right at this very moment, plotting a new heading for the Enterprise, perhaps to crash it somewhere? Maybe, this was Lore's way of punishing Data, for transporting him into space over two years ago? Data surmised that this android was unstable enough to do, or be doing, any of those things, and even probably worse. And, what he believed to be worse of all, the crew would not even know that he was missing. The last time he and Lore had been unfortunate enough to have their paths cross, Lore strolled around the Enterprise, masquerading as Data, and at first, no one really knew that it wasn't Data. Of course, many crew members had had their suspicions, but they did not know for sure that it wasn't Data. It was Dr Crusher's teenage son, Wesley, who had alerted captain Picard of the fact that this pale android who was on the bridge of the Enterprise was an imposter. Wesley Crusher had been able to deduce this because he had noticed the twitches that appeared to happen to Lore's head every so often, thus showing clearly that it wasn't actually lieutenant commander Data at the helm. However, in this particular instance, Wesley was not on-board the Enterprise, as he was busy training at Starfleet Academy, many light years in the Earth city of San Francisco. To add to Data's already decreasing chances of hope, Lore appeared to not be twitching any more. Data, himself, had servo mechanisms in his neck that were designed to approximate human movements, but his face did not spasm in any way.

It was physically inconceivable for an android, such as Data, to become disoriented. Naturally, Data did not panic, as he was unable to do so, but instead he began to use logical methods that would enable him to escape from undesirable confinement. He thought about simply pulling away from the shackles, and so he decided to put that plan into practise. He started by trying slowly, and carefully, to slide his hands out of the strengthened poly alloy tether that bound his hands together. However, the tether was stronger than Data had previously anticipated, and, even when he devoted all his strength and thoughts towards the matter at hand, the rope still would not show even the slightest signs of yielding. Data then promptly reached the conclusion that his hands were simply to wide to slide through the rope successfully. He could easily get his wrists through, but his hands were larger than his wrists, and caused his pals to continually rub against the poly alloy cord. If he had one hands free, then all his struggling would be non-existent, and even if the rope was impossible to untie, he could was just as easily able to detach his hands to pull himself free, and then reattach them. But, the reality was, that both his hands were bound with the tether, behind his back, and he could not see a way of releasing himself. Lore, as expected, had taken his phaser, so there was not even the remote chance that Data could somehow manage to burn through to rope.

The only hope that Data had of escaping this confounded place was that someone would, by chance, find him, but, judging by the desolate scenes that Data could just barely make out from looking out of the single dusty, small window, there was no life in this place. There was a star, not to far away, so Data gathered that the air would be breathable to the vast majority of humanoid lifeforms, and that star seemed to flicker every other day or so. Data new from training, and from common knowledge that this is a symbol of a planetary body transiting, or passing by its parent star. Judging by the small increment that the luminosity of the star changed during these transit, Data correctly deduced that he was on a planet, and that he was not on some sort of natural satellite.

As Data's close scrutiny of the minute window increased, he started to formulate a new idea as to how he could release himself from these infernal ropes. He only needed one piece of equipment, and that was the window. He had calculated the precise moment at which the brightness of the star would be strongest, and this occurrence would only happen once every twenty point three hours. Nineteen hours had passed since this last happened, so Data determined that it was only a matter of time, and a very short one at that. He knew all to well that every second that he spent tied up in this confinement the danger that the USS Enterprise and, indeed, the entire crew, were in increased dramatically. He simply could not afford to waste any more time. There were well over one thousand people on-board the Enterprise, of whom many were civilians who Lore could possibly have no toil with, and all their lives would be at risk if Data stayed in the imprisonment a moment longer. And, knowing Lore's determination, there was a high probability that people were already being harmed at his hand.

Once the time was right for the fluorescence of the star to escalate, Data set about manipulating his chair in slow, yet steady movements, which resulted in the position of the chair becoming altered slightly. The back of it, where Data's hands were bound, was now facing the narrow window which seemed to be desperately attempting to let in even the smallest glimmer of light. The window was covered in a thin layer of glass, which was characterised by the many cracks that had formed over the years. These tiny fractures gave the appearance of a deluge of tiny trees, due to the fact that off of each crack, many more smaller cracks seemed to sprout from it. It became apparent to Data that these cracks did not merely just convey the state of dilapidation that this place was in, but that they also would allow the path of the sunlight to be redirected towards Data's position in the room.

As the sunlight broke through the clouds, seemingly bringing life to this apparently dead planet, it gleamed through the window, with the cracks in the dirty glass refracting the light. This intense sunlight which was now streaming into the otherwise pitch black room, resulted in a small spark to appear on the rope which bound Data's hands together. The resultant spark then grew in size until the unmistakeable glare of fire began to appear, then began to slowly, but effectively, burn away the tether. As soon as the tether had been broken, Data promptly shook off the charred remnants of it, leaving it to then fall to the floor.

Wasting no time at all, Data hastily picked himself up off of the chair. He reached down to where his utility belt should be, but he found nothing. Data was struck with the sudden realisation that, as his utility belt was no longer with him, his tricorder would not be either. This would mean that he would have no means of surveying his surroundings or of taking any sort of analysis or samples.

The room could be radioactive, or there could be an extremely powerful electromagnetic pulse that Lore could possibly have set up, so, in the event that Data did somehow manage to break free of the poly alloy tethers, his neural net would be completely and utterly destroyed, with no chance of a revival. Data, himself, however, highly doubted this, as he knew that Lore must need him for something, otherwise it would have been logical for him to bring about Data's death.

Data, although he was at last finally free from the once resistant shackles, now faced a new problem. He needed to find a way of alerting the crew of the Enterprise, if, indeed, they were still alive. Data knew very well that Lore was definitely more that capable of bringing about the deaths of many a person. During their last encounter, Lore had threatened to kill Wesley Crusher, for he was the one who was responsible for tracing down Lore and who realised that he was impersonating lieutenant commander Data. After a brutal brawl, Data managed to successfully transport Lore into the great abyss that is space, leaving the Enterprise safe... for at least a couple of years, at the most.

Now, Data had no phaser, and in addition to that, he had no tricorder either. Data glanced down at himself, seeing that he was still wearing his Starfleet uniform and subsequently recalled that his combadge should still be attached to his uniform. As he shifted his gaze slightly, his eyes could not seem to successfully lock onto the combadge. The reason why was simple, the combadge was missing. Data now knew that he had no means of contacting the Enterprise, and, thus, he had no means of returning either.

It had crossed his mind not that long ago that the transporter the Lore had used should still be operational. However, disastrously, the transporter had been disabled. He was now absolutely sure of the fact that he could not return to the Enterprise. He could do nothing to help.


	7. Understanding

"Cheers." Ensign Grace Fletcher beamed, bringing her glass full of synthehol until it made contact with the android's glass, making a short but sweet clinking sound. Her smile was broad enough to light up the entirety of Ten Forward. She looked across the table to see the pale android who seemed to be acting more emotional than usual. She thought deeply about that fact that it was very possible that Data had engineered some sort of emotion chip for himself; but she did not know why would he not tell her. Maybe she was just jumping to conclusions, as she quite often did. She and Data really were not as close as she regularly liked to think, so he probably just did not feel comfortable to disclose any further information to her; it was simply too personal. But, recently his ability to portray human emotions had increased, most notably earlier on in the day, when he had invited her for a drink in Ten Forward; the central hub of all of the Enterprise-D's social happenings and events. "Ummm, Data?" She asked between sips of her synthetic wine, "why did you... ask me out." She cursed herself silently, why did she use the words 'ask out', it made it sound like she believed that this was some sort of a date. "...I mean, ummm, ask me to meet you here... in Ten Forward?" She quickened to add.

Lore understood perfectly entirely what the young ensign was asking, but nonetheless, he did not reply straight away. "I felt that..." he searched his positronic brain regarding what sort of response Data, would give. "it would be... appropriate... as you and I share such similar qualities and interests..." He felt himself becoming more and more nervous; how long could he keep us this insane lie? He found that he simply was not able to contain himself any longer and he completely lost it. "Ah hell!" He cursed, leaving ensign Fletcher to become physically frozen with shock; she was stupefied with notion that Data could swear. "D... Data?" She stuttered.

"Shhh." Lore put a finger to his pale coloured lips and his eyes began to grow as red as embers burning on an everlasting fire. "Come with me."

Grace was extremely hesitant at first, but nevertheless, she decided to follow him, wherever he was taking her. She ran through over and over again in her mind about whether or not Data was... alright. Was he functioning correctly? As they walked, Lore gripped her arm with almost too much strength than she could handle and she whimpered at the pain. "Data! Stop it! You're hurting me!" She cried, trying desperately to look at him directly in the eyes. Whenever someone would walk past them, Lore would relax his grip on her arms ever so slightly and would also attempt alter his facial expression from angry and nervous to that of a more neutral nature. "Data!..." Her voice drained off as her feelings of worry became to great.

They came across the first private space they could find; Holodeck three. As the computer had not been instructed to create any particular environment, as was custom whenever someone would usually enter the Holodeck, they walked into a bare square shaped room, of which the size seemed to be very near impossible to determine accurately. The room had pitch black walls, accompanied with a black ceiling and a black floor. However, the room was not just completely black, there were regular fluorescent, thin strips of the colour yellow that would cross at equal intervals, forming numerous commensurate square shapes. "Don't call me Data!" Lore's expression denoted just how angry and worried he was, alarming Grace, and himself.

Grace thought for a moment; she could've sworn that he had just used a contraction, which would be unusual, not to mention impossible for Data to do, unless her earlier theory about the possibility of him installing the emotion chip was actually correct. But, the aspect of what Lore had said that caused her the most apprehension were the very words that he had used. "What? What do you mean?"

Lore now put a strong and aggressive grip on her other arm and pushed her forcefully against one of the walls of Holodeck three. "Don't call me Data!"He shouted between firmly gritted teeth.

"I don't understand..." Grace wept, her tears clogging up her vision, causing her to see things in a blur. "Tell me what you mean." She attempted to calm herself down slightly, lowering her tone of voice, making it sound less desperate. "Please..."

"My name is not Data!" He yelled, before taking a step to the side where he violently kicked the wall of the Holodeck.

Grace simply could not figure out what the android meant. It just made no sense whatsoever. "I don't understand. Just, please... tell me what you mean. You're scaring me."

Lore thought very carefully about knocking her out, with one swift movement with his extremely powerful arms, just as he had done previously with transporter chief O'Donnell. O'Donnell's body was discovered only recently, as the attack had only taken place a day or so ago, and Doctor Crusher had no leads whatsoever as to who the antagonist was. She had managed to deduce that the aggressor was strong and quite obviously knew exactly where the blow should be delivered. But, they were just about they only facts that she had access to. O'Donnell had only just come back into consciousness and he had had no recollection of any of the events that had lead to his injuries.

Thus, Lore discarded the idea of attacking Grace as he felt that he had grown reasonably fond of her; despite of the fact that she and him had only actually been acquainted for less than a few hours. She seemed to understand him, and he was grateful for that. The only emotion he had ever felt, in all of his life, was rage. Coupled with torment, anger and hatred, he had never had the opportunity to know what it was like to feel some of the many positive emotions; happiness, companionship and the one that he desired with the most passion, love. He felt himself become overwhelmed with emotions; why? He had only ever been a malevolent individual, and now, all of a sudden it seemed that it was no longer the case. He was confused and did not have any idea about what to do. He had completely forgotten about his brother, who still lay in the darkness of the compound, all alone. As the plethora of emotions began to slowly seep into his system, he leant his back up against the Holodeck wall, at the very same place that he had kicked not that long ago and slid down until the point came when his lower half came into contact with the floor and he stopped.

He brought his knees up to his chest and folded his arms on top them. Seeing that he was quite obviously, and very confusingly, upset, Grace sat down beside him and put a reassuring hand on his arm. "Well, then, who are you?" She asked bluntly, desperately in need of the truth, whatever it may be. She drew her other hand up to her face, so she could wipe her tearful eyes.

Lore lifted his head up and looked deeply in to the ensign's azure coloured eyes, but he did not reply.

Realising that she was not going to get a reply from him any time soon, she asked another question. "How come you look so much like Data?" She grew more and more confused.

The android answered her question simply, with only one four word sentence. "He is my brother." Inside he felt sick. He did not like to speak of Data as being his brother. Brothers are meant to care for their loved ones, and not simply ignore them, as Data had done to him, leaving him at the mercy of the unforgiving universe.

"Where is he? I haven't see him for quite some time. I'm beginning to get worried."

Lore was too concerned with other, more important matters and too afraid to admit the truth, so he lied, naturally. "He has left."

"Left? What do you mean?" She took her hand off of his shoulder, shocked and worried, but, in some part, curious.

"He has left the Enterprise." Lore's explanation was not very long, neither did it appear to satisfy the ensign.

Her face bore a perplexed expression. "Why? Why would he leave?" Surely other members of the crew would have started to notice that lieutenant commander Data was missing. But, then, why would they? In their eyes, this... imposter was Data, so they would not even suspect a thing. They had no reason to.

"Look," he shot her an angry, yet also fearful look, "I don't know why he has left. He has just left."

"Do... do you have a... name?" She asked yet another question.

Lore nodded. "Yes, my name is Lore." There was absolutely no way that he could ever disclose to her his real intentions. Nor could he afford to let her become knowledgeable of the fact that those intentions were malevolent and that he had his brother locked up in a secure location many miles away. He could not afford to let the ensign lose his trust.

"Lore? That's an unusual name. Mind you, so is 'Data'." She smiled at the confused android, whose position on the brightly chequered floor had still not yet changed.

She heard him sigh. Did - could - androids even sigh?

Grace placed her hand back on to his folded arms in an attempt to try and assure him that there was no need to become so anxious. "Don't worry," she consoled him, "emotions are a wonderful thing, they are meant to be embraced. Its probably just your emotion chip playing up." She pointed out to him.

Emotion chip?! Lore's confusion grew. Lore now knew that his original decision to get to know the ensign better was indeed a very wise choice. Grace was an engineer and had a great deal of knowledge regarding even the ship's most advanced systems, including information detailing Data and the elusive emotion chip that he had craved so much and for so long. Lore's own emotional capabilities originated from his positronic matrix. Dr Noonian Soong had not given him a removable emotion chip as he had, at the time, thought there was no need for one. This is why Lore's emotions were always so very unstable. However, in this instance, Lore was not overcome with malevolence, he was just overcome with vivid bewilderment. He did not want Grace to find out his malevolent intentions, so he simply concluded that it would be best for both him, and for his scheme to go ahead if he took what she had said in his stride, which is exactly what he did. He nodded at the ensign's evaluation of the situation, however incorrect it was.

There was a long silence, which was broken by ensign Fletcher. "Are you... okay now?" She asked. How else could she ask him how he was? He wasn't alive, at least, not in the conventional way, anyway. Would it have been better if she had simply asked him if he was 'functioning within normal parameters'? No. That is what she would have asked Data, if he would ever even behave in such a way which was very unlikely in itself, but this was Lore. He was different. They may be brothers and they may look identical, but they were certainly not the same person. Grace felt herself warming to Lore, and she couldn't seem to help it.

Lore nodded and placed his hands on the floor of the Holodeck, pushing himself into a standing position. He extended his arm, holding his hand in a sort of beckoning, welcoming position towards Grace. She put her hand in his and he gently pulled her up so she was standing up next to him. Before she could exit from the Holodeck, she felt Lore's hand grasp her arm with very little force. She knew that she could have very easily have brushed it off and simply walked off, but she did not. "Whatever you do, you can't tell anyone. Not even one person that I am not Data." He demanded her, their faces level.

"Why not?" She asked.

Lore didn't want to give away his true intentions, so he fabricated an excuse. "Data told me that he didn't want anyone to know that he had left, so, he told me to stay here, in his place. Do you get it?"

"All right, all right." She sighed, not taking his demand seriously. She had always been branded as a naïve individual by both her family and by her friends, but she did not see it that way. She instead thought of herself as just being caring. This android was very different to lieutenant commander Data, and Grace believed that he was somehow more human. In addition, Lore seemed to become fond of her too.

Lore, ever so slightly, increased his grip on her. "I mean it. Don't tell anyone." His look was one of anger and dread.

"I promise, I won't." Grace repeated softly. "I promise." She repeated. "You can trust me." She smiled at him sweetly.

Lore nodded as her expression seemed to display that she was indeed telling him the truth, so he pressed the matter no further. Regardless of what her response was, Lore knew that he needed to remain close to the young ensign. She was to play a key part when it came to the main objective of his ploy, which was obtaining the emotion chip that lay somewhere on board this gargantuan ship. The USS Enterprise-D was over six hundred and forty two meters in length and had a width of four hundred and sixty seven meters. In addition to these colossal measurements, the height of the starship was in excess of one hundred and thirty seven meters, so Lore knew that locating this chip would not be an easy task.

Lore could feel himself becoming more and more influenced by this woman. Why? Although he knew that, deep inside of him that it was simply love, he did not like to nor did he want to admit this. He had only just met this woman, how could he possibly love her? He had never loved and had never been loved. He used to view loving someone as being only as a weakness, and nothing more. A disadvantage. Love would distract someone, very easily, from their original purposes and Lore was fighting back desperately to ensure that this did not happen to him, but he was too late.

It had originally been his belief that biological lifeforms were inferior to beings such as himself, but now, he felt a different attitude towards them. He realised that he was beginning to appreciate them. He did not have any desire to be like them, just like Data did, but he somehow admired their many emotions. He understood that everyone needed to feel appreciation, and that included him as well. Not only did he want to feel appreciated, he wanted to know what it was like to love, and what it was like to be loved. For so long he had been drifting in the vacuum of space, leaving him to feel alone and dejected, but now that he and Grace Fletcher had become acquainted, those emotions began to slowly seep away.


	8. An apology

A few days after Lore and Grace's first encounter, Lore was contemplating about what to do. He had told her not to tell anyone about him not actually being lieutenant commander Data when they were in the Holodeck, but his mind would not stop wandering. As he was walking to his quarters, as a matter of fact, they were Data's quarters, Lore caught sight of ensign Fletcher. He quickly walked over to her and decided on what to say. He thought that he should apologise, and so he did. "Grace, I wanted to apologise for my behaviour." He said.

Grace wasn't really sure what he was referring to. "What behaviour?"

"In the Holodeck." he then responded simply and bluntly, trying not to say too much.

Grace smiled and accepted his apology. "That's all right." She paused, before continuing, "Was there anything else?" She asked.

Lore nodded shyly. "I wanted to..."

Grace found him very cute. "Yes?" She encouraged him to continue.

Lore gave up on what he was saying and decided to take a different approach and see what would happen. "Are you busy now?" He asked her.

Grace shook her head and smiled. "No. Why?" She asked, curiously.

"Would you like to... talk?" He asked nervously.

"Talk? What do you mean?" She frowned.

Lore didn't reply, and so Grace decided to step in. "Yeah, sure, I wouldn't mind."

Lore nodded. He wasn't really actually sure, himself, as to why he was still talking to this ensign, but he was. "Would you like to... come in?" He turned around and gestured to the room which was a little farther down the corridor of the deck they were on.

Grace was a bit confused. "But, they're Data's quarters, aren't they?" She asked him. She recognised the room number.

"Yes." Lore replied to her simply.

Grace pondered this for a moment, before replying. "Okay, its not like I've got anything better to do. I can spare a minute or two."

Lore then opened the door to Data's quarters and he led Grace inside. "Would you like a drink, or something?" He asked her.

"No thanks." She smiled. "Do you want to talk about something?"

"I'm not sure." Lore confessed.

"Okay, well..." Grace started but she wasn't entirely sure of how to proceed. "just say what's on your mind." She said as she sat down on the hard couch.

Lore, after hesitating for quite sometime, sat down beside her, but not exactly next to her. "There is not much to discuss," he said quietly.

"Well, shall I just leave then?" Grace asked.

"No!" Lore shot back at her. It didn't sound angry, but more desperate. "Don't leave," he softened his tone.

Grace smiled and she felt sorry for him. "Okay, I won't." She smiled back at him and put her hand on his, which was resting on his leg.

"I..." Lore broke the uncomfortable silence, "...I feel comfortable around you," he said.

"That's all right," Grace said.

Lore wasn't really sure what to do. In fact, he had no idea, whatsoever, about what to do now. They sat there for a short while, but then Lore came to a decision. He shuffled along the couch until he and Grace were slightly closer. He leant forward a little and placed his lips gently on hers. He had never kissed anyone before, and so he wasn't really sure of what to do. He had seen other people do it before, so he just guessed about what to do.

In shock, Grace pulled her head back. "Lore?..." She began, confused by his action.

Lore was confused too. "I... I'm sorry," he said quietly.

"Its all right." Grace said, smiling sweetly.

"You can leave... if you want." Lore said.

"Okay." She said. Just as she was about to leave she turned back around and said, "Lore?"

Lore stood up and listened.

"Goodbye."

Lore stared back at her in a mixture of both confusion and wonder. "Bye," he said as he watched her walk out of the room.

Once she was gone, he sat back down on the couch and mused over what had just happened. Even when the door had slid shut, he was still staring.


	9. Formulating an escape

Now that lieutenant commander Data had succeeded in freeing himself from those infernal poly alloy tethers, he now realised that he needed to think of some way in which he could feasibly contact the Enterprise. He knew that Lore had taken his combadge, as expected, and Data also knew that his utility belt was missing. That meant that his tricorder and his phaser would be gone as well. Data possessed both the knowledge and the expertise that would be required in order to create a communicator from items such as a phaser and a tricorder, but, without those two essential objects, he quickly realised that he was going to have to search this place in order to see if there was anything that could possibly be of use.

The place in which Data was imprisoned possessed many of the characteristics which one would instantly attribute to a neglected basement or, what was more likely, a haunted house. Now that Data had finally managed to successfully liberate himself from the extremely tough shackles that Lore had imprisoned him with, he could very easily wander around the place and search for the appropriate materials that would be required.

Fulfilling his first instinct, Data looked around for a door; a way to escape this infernal compound. He knew, full well, that there was a window in one of the walls, but it was definitely too high up for him to reach. Not to mention the fact that it was less that half a foot in height, and slightly more in length, nonetheless, it was about a foot high. Even with all of the supreme capabilities that Data possessed, he could not reach the height that would be necessary for him to use the window as some form of escape method. The window was already cracked and Data could see no way of reaching up there, at least, not with any assistance.

So, as Data pondered the matter at hand, it became apparent to him that the very object that he had been bound to, the chair, could also be, for lack of a better word, his salvation. He then walked over to the chair and set it down neatly beside the window. He stood on the chair, accordingly and reached his arms up, trying to feel for the lock on the window. After coming to the realisation that there was no lock on the window, he knew now that he would have to reach the window and the some how manage to clamber out. But, first, he still needed to reach the window itself. He stretched his arms as much as they were designed to be able to, yet he still could not contact the window. There wasn't even any evidence of there being something that Data could hold on to, for purchase. There was no window ledge, as such, no ladder, all he had was a chair which, it was fair to say, had had better days.

Data looked around the room, from where he was stood, and scanned his surroundings for some sort of table, one that would be able to support his weight of one hundred kilograms. Of course, he had knowledge of there being a table, which appeared to be acting as more of a desk, but once Data had walked over to it, his hopes were in turmoil as he noticed that the desk was bolted to the wall. Data devoted all of his strength in an attempt to try and prise the table away from the wall. However, in spite of all of the immense strength that Data possessed, he could not release the table. Try as he might, with all of his strength, the table still would not budge. Data knew, all to well, that his numerous attempts would be in futility.

So, realising any further attempts regarding this would be useless and in vain, Data decided to alter his attention to a different, but equally important matter. He needed, desperately, to think of some method of getting into contact with the USS Enterprise. For every single moment that he spent wallowing in this dark and gloomy compound, the very life of someone on board the ship could be cruelly snatched away by his brother. Data had not even known of Lore's existence for a considerably long amount of time, but, nonetheless, Data did know a lot about him. He knew that Lore was capable of anything, and that Lore would stop at absolutely nothing whatsoever if it would promise him even the slightest and most remote chance of victory. Lore was determined and ruthless and Data knew very well that Lore had the intelligence and the talent to execute a scheme such as this.

Data could not, however, find any object that could possibly even be of the slightest use to him when it came to creating a make-shift communicator. He searched the dark, unforgiving room, which was extremely difficult, as the only way that light could get into the compound was through one minuscule window, which he could not manage to reach. There was nothing which Data could identify as some sort of radio or a satellite; there was absolutely nothing that could prove to be useful.

After much thinking, Data suddenly remembered something. He recalled how his hands were bound with a material known as a 'poly alloy'. Not only was this material extremely lightweight, yet durable, it was also known to be a very good conductor. Data knew that this could, theoretically, serve as some form of wire which would serve as not only a piece of wire, but a conductor as well. However, his plan was not even close to being complete. He needed to find some way of quickly and effectively harnessing an energy source. He had previously used the sunlight to his advantage, but he realised that implementing this method would be all but obsolete, as time was of the essence.

As a result of much searching, Data finally came across something of use, a torch. It was only a small torch, at that, but it would definitely be able to serve a purpose in the creation of Data's temporary communicator. Data took the batteries out of the torch and set it down on the desk, beside the poly alloy tether. Now that he had the connecting wire, conductor and the power supply, Data now needed something which he could use as an antenna. He could see a lot of metal objects that were strewn around, randomly, in the compound, but none of which could have their size altered. Data needed the antenna to be the correct size, so he could be sure that the signal would be transmitted to the correct destination. As, the further away the destination of the signal was, the longer the length of the antenna would be required to be.

At last, Data caught sight of a long, thin strip of metal, which was attached to the wall beside him. He managed, at last, to get some leverage on the metal strip and pulled it off of the wall. Data placed it on the table, alongside the length of the poly alloy and the torch battery. He then began to fashion the strip of metal into the correct size, taking into account the knowledge of the last recorded position of the USS Enterprise, that he could remember, which was the moment that Lore had transported him to where he was now. He allowed for the discrepancies that would occur because the Enterprise would have surely shifted its position, as Data had been imprisoned for over a week. Data knew that the Enterprise's course would not have differed that much, and at most, it would only be travelling at one quarter impulse power.


	10. Why do birds?

Captain Picard smiled as he looked across the large table of the main conference lounge. As always, he was at the head of the table. "As I'm sure you know," Picard started to talk, "every year, we hold a staff dance."

Everyone who was sat around the large oval shaped table nodded. "When is it?" Commander Riker asked.

"I am sure counsellor Troi can tell you," Picard gestured to Deanna and Riker turned around to face her, as she was sat next to him. It was Deanna who was organising the dance this year. Last year, it had been the responsibility of Beverly Crusher, the chief medical officer.

Deanna folded her arms and answered Riker's question. "Its tonight," she said.

"Tonight?" Riker repeated in shock. He knew it was soon, but he never thought that it would be that early.

"Yes, didn't you know, Number One?" Picard queried.

"No, no, I did know. Sorry, it must have just slipped my mind."

Lieutenant Worf then interjected. He had never been fond of dancing. "Is it compulsory?" He asked.

Captain Picard chuckled quietly at the Klingon's worried sounding question. "No, Mr Worf, it is not compulsory. But, if you wish, you can come."

Deanna Troi then continued to explain further information about the dance. "The dance will be held in recreation room five, as it is the only recreation room with windows."

Lore was seated at the table too, as he was more or less in place of Data. He wasn't entirely sure about the dance. Obviously, he knew that he didn't necessarily have to go, but he felt as though he should. Data was rather good at dancing, Lore was not.

"Dismissed." Picard gave out the order, and promptly all of the officers then left from the conference lounge.

A few hours had passed, and now it was the time of the dance. Still, Lore was very unsure of the whole thing. He had never even danced before in his whole life. He was standing near the broad, majestic windows of the recreation room, along with commander Riker and a few other officers. Riker, as always, looked dashing in his black suit and, he had shaved off his beard.

The doors of the recreation room slid open, and someone walked in. It was Deanna Troi. Riker turned around, and when he saw her he was simply lost for words. He walked over to her and too her hand and they began to dance slowly. The starlight outside acted as some sort of a natural spotlight.

Lore was beginning to get more nervous now. He had invited Grace Fletcher to the dance with him, but she still hadn't turned up. He was expecting her to arrive at the same time as counsellor Troi, but Troi had already arrived and Lore couldn't she Grace anywhere. However he consoled himself with the knowledge that Grace was looking forward to the dance a lot, so he doubted that she would miss it.

Just as Lore was about to turn away and look out of the large windows to stare in wonderment at the billions of stars, he saw the recreation room doors open once again. The sight that he saw was perhaps the most beautiful thing he had ever seen.

Bewildered amazement clouded Lore's features for some time before he managed to return his expression to a neutral one. Ensign Fletcher approached him, wearing a flowing, blue dress; that matched the colour of her eyes.

"You are the most beautiful woman here," he observed as she stopped to stand in front of him.

"What about Deanna?" Grace said as she looked across the room to see the ship's counsellor dancing with commander Riker.

Lore put his hands on her hips and looked down into her eyes, "Even more so than her," he said.

"Well," Grace began, "you're very handsome too." And, with that, she put her hands on each of Lore's cheeks and placed her lips to hers. Lore pushed back and moved his hands down her back slightly. "Do you like this dress?" She asked.

Lore was a little confused. "Yes. It compliments your figure very much," he said. Lore, himself, was wearing a black suit; a tuxedo. He had never worn anything at all like this and he thought it made him look rather ridiculous.

She smiled, "Are we going to dance?" She asked him, but she noticed someone at the other end of the recreation room. It was Andy Summers. "I'll just be one minute." She said to Lore before she walked over to where Andy was. He was sat in the corner, by himself. It was strange, seeing him sat by himself. Once she had walked over to him, Grace spoke, "Why are you sat here all by yourself?" She asked him.

Andy didn't say anything in response, instead, he just shrugged. "You look very nice." He said glumly.

"Thank you," Grace smiled as she sat down next to him. "How come you haven't asked anyone to the dance?" She asked.

He sighed before answering. "I don't know. There wasn't really anyone I wanted to ask." That was the truth. He had wanted to ask Grace, but that was definitely out of the question.

"Oh." Grace said.

Andy put on a fake smile. "You can go back and dance with Data." He said.

Grace smiled and then walked back over to where Lore was.

Andy sighed as he watched Grace walk away. He wished he could have asked her.

"Why...?" Lore began to talk before Grace cut him off. "Don't worry," Grace interjected. She knew that Lore had felt somewhat threatened by Andy and she just wanted to make sure that he was all right.

They continued to dance and the song changed. It had been something rather slow and boring to start off with, but this song had a slightly faster tempo. It took her a few moments to recognise what it was. Her knowledge of classical music wasn't all that great. Everything she knew about classical music was because Sarah had told her about it. Once the song's chorus began to start, Grace recognised it at once. It was a song from Earth's mid-twentieth century, _Close to You._ She had remembered hearing the song when she was young, even tough it was hundreds of years old. Lore took her hand and they began to dance.

The song was only a couple of minutes long and now it had finished. George Burly, one of Andy's friends, was the person in charge of the music at the dance for this year. He, like Andy and Grace, was a fan of rock music, but he couldn't play that sort of music here as you can't really dance to it. He did however, manage to play one song. It wasn't in the rock genre, but it was by a rock band.

As soon as the first few notes of the song had began playing, Grace knew exactly what it was. Lore saw her expression change, she looked a little sad. "Are you all right?" He asked her as the continued to dance.

She, being shorter than him, looked up and nodded. "I'm fine. Its just, this is my favourite song," she replied.

At last, the singing had started in the song and Grace felt something. She felt nostalgic. This song had been her and Andy's favourite song when they were at high school together. She even remembered the first time that she heard it. Andy had always been interested in history, and so once, he had shown her something called a cassette player and the song which he played on it was the song which was playing now.

_"Last Night on Earth,"_ Grace said the song title, almost dreamily. As soon as she said it, she looked over Lore's shoulder to see Andy's glum expression as he was sat on a chair across the room. Grace no longer had any feelings for him, but, nonetheless, she still felt sorry for him.

Lore had heard her, "What?" He asked, confused.

"On, no, nothing," Grace replied quickly. The song seemed to go on for ages and, in a way, she wanted it to end. It kept reminding her of Andy, and she didn't want that.

Finally, the song ended and Grace could relax. Now, George Burly put on a different song, which had been requested by another officer. The first few notes of the song, the drum, piano and violin had started and Grace smiled. She seemed to remember Sarah telling her that it was her favourite song, and so, Grace had listened to it many times. After little over ten seconds, the singing began. Grace had to admit, this man, Elvis, had a wonderful voice.

As the song carried on playing, it made Lore think. The lyric reminded him of Grace. He wasn't quite sure why or how, but why simply did. It was as if there was some sort of a link. "Do you like this song?" He asked her.

Grace lifted her head up of Lore's shoulder and nodded, "Do you?" She asked him.

Lore, unlike Data, did not have any preferences regarding musical taste, but he did rather like the song which was playing. "Yes," he replied. He whispered, "It's getting late," reminding her.

"Is it?" Grace wondered. On a starship, in practically the middle of nowhere, how could there be a day and a night? It confused her a little, but there had to be time, and there was. There was a large clock on display in the recreation room, and she noticed it. "You're right," she said once she knew what the time was.

"Should we leave?" Lore asked.

It was actually quite cold in the recreation room, and Grace could feel the cold air on her legs. It wasn't very comfortable. Sarah had told her to wear something longer, but she hadn't listened. Just before they left the room, Grace walked over to where Deanna and Riker were, with Lore, and congratulated her on the dance, "The dance is amazing, commander, counsellor!" Grace said.

Deanna smiled, "Thank you. You look very pretty, and," she caught sight of Lore, "Data, you look handsome too."

_Data..._ The word clung to Lore.


	11. Second and third thoughts

More than two and a half whole months had passed and still, Lore had no further evidence regarding the whereabouts of the elusive emotion chip that he longed for so greatly. It had surprised him greatly that Grace did not think much of the fact that he was treating lieutenant commander Data's personal quarters as if they were his own.

In fact, it wasn't only Lore in lieutenant commander Data's quarters, Grace was too. To be more precise, she wasn't exactly living there. She would just stay over there. She would get some strange looks from fellow officer, who saw her always going into what they thought to be Data's quarters.

Throughout their reasonably short time of knowing each other, although Lore did not like to admit it, he and Grace had grown very close. Lore was actually beginning to almost completely forget what the main reason for him transporting aboard the Enterprise was. As Grace would continue going on with her usual daily routines, so would Lore. And, as much as it surprised him, he felt that he had actually fallen in love with her.

Whenever Grace and Lore would walk around the starship together, they would be the subject of numerous looks. The many crew members found it very odd that an android, who they all, quite understandably, thought to be Data, was holding hands with a fellow female officer.

"How are you?" Lore asked Grace as he returned to Data's personal quarters, to see her sat on the couch, looking pensive. He placed his hand consolingly on her rigid shoulder. Lore's emotions had evolved considerably since the time of his arrival on board the USS Enterprise. His thoughts used to only linger around hatred and malevolence, but now he was more focused on the feelings of care and of... love.

"I'm fine." She replied simply as she looked up at him.

Lore studied her expression, which gave very little away, regarding the true feelings that she fought back. "Your expression says otherwise." He pointed out.

Grace put her hand on top of Lore's and gestured for him to sit down. "Sorry. It's just been a bit of a hectic day, that's all." She made a poor attempt at a smile.

"Grace," Lore began, "I need to ask you something."

"Sure, what is it?" She looked at his face, lovingly placing her hand upon his cold cheek.

"I don't know if this is working." He shrugged her hand off his face.

Grace's facial expression was one of upset and worry. "What do you mean?"

Lore tried to explain to the best of his ability, which he hoped would mean the explanation would be acceptable enough. "Us." He replied simply.

"I don't understand, Lore. Why? What's wrong?" Tears started to form in her eyes.

"I can't control my emotions any more."

"I know it must be difficult. But I don't understand how that affects your feelings for me?" She desperately needed a clarification.

"Grace," he looked her straight in the eye. They were of a light blue hue and seemed to Lore to symbolize purity and forgiveness. He was thankful for this perception. "I'm becoming more and more confused. I don't see how I can continue."

"Lore, listen to me." Grace Fletcher instructed him, as she then placed each of her slender hands onto the android's cold, pale cheeks. "Love can be confusing, very confusing. I should know that more than anyone else. But, it turns out fine in the end. I'm here for you, don't worry." She lay her head on his broad shoulders, burrowing her head into the soft material of the Starfleet issue uniform.

Lore considered what Grace had said and came to the conclusion that what her words made a lot of sense, and he mirrored her way of showing affection, by resting is head on her shoulder at the same time as she did the very same, inhaling her aromatic scent. He did enjoy her company, and was certainly not in any immediate position to deny it, but he was still unsure.

As Lore felt the young ensign's position shift ever so slightly, he altered his aimless gaze at the wall until noticed a large mirror. It looked very out of place, standing where it was. As the room was of such a great size to start off with, this awkwardly placed mirror quite clearly showed Data's obvious lack of home design skills. Seeing himself appear to be so vulnerable made Lore shudder inside. He looked so weak, crying on this woman's shoulder. Then he realised that this 'woman' wasn't just anyone, she was Grace Fletcher. He would never, ever openly admit it, but he loved this woman. And, what was even worse, he did not know why he loved this woman, all the knowledge he possessed pointed him to the same thing: that he loved her. The confusion had been almost causing him to go insane. The only emotions he had ever experienced were of malice and hatred. However, he had seen love, in regards to other people, but he, himself, had never felt love before. That is, until he met Grace. She cared for him and it didn't seem to bother her in any way, shape or form that he was an android. She clearly loved him for who he was, and not for any other reason. What if she were to find out who I truly am?... What happened to Data...?

He got up onto his feet and stood up, before staring into the mirror, as if he was secretly hoping that it could offer him any clues as to why he was becoming so overwhelmed with emotion, but his efforts were in vain. Although he knew the idea was quite obviously ludicrous, he continued to stare at the mirror, and the mirror, in turn, appeared to be staring back at him. Suddenly, Lore remembered something. He was not supposed to fall in love with this woman, but he had. He needed some way to stop himself from loving her, but he simply couldn't. His attempts to restrain his love so far had been proven to be futile, so he decided that declaring the love unrequited would not be the most logical and most beneficial method of proceeding. Therefore, he tried desperately, but silently, to try and recall what his main reason for coming on board the Enterprise was.

All of a sudden, rage began to build up inside of him and Lore was at a loss regarding how he should dispose of the anger. He could not just simply keep it stored up inside of him, he needed some way to vent it out. He knew there was only one way that he could do so, and it was by violence. But, Grace was in the room with him, and he could not bear to let her see him in this state. Lore knew that, if his quick temper was going to get the better of him now, as it quite often did, Grace would be witness to it. Lore dreaded an instance in which he might actually lash out at her.

All being told, Lore could not restrain himself and so he lashed out, but not directing his anger at Grace. Instead, he brought his leg back and, with all his strength, he thrust it into one of the walls of the quarters. As he did so, he opened his mouth and out came a sharp, loud but only short yell of frustration, desperation and anger.

All Grace could do was sit and stare. She had thought that she had managed to calm him down, but, evidently, that was not the case. "Lore..." she began, as she walked over to him, cautiously. "What's wrong?" She asked.

Lore shook his head and began to pace up and down across the room. He had his hands held up to his head, sighing loudly.

"Lore?..." Grace asked again. "You can talk to me..." She wanted desperately to make sure that he was all right.

But, still, Lore did not respond. Instead, he continued to pace. Grace walked up to him and placed her hand on his shoulder, which he made a feeble attempt to brush off, and Grace held her hand on to him firmer. "I don't understand what is the matter. Please... tell me..."

"I can't..." Was all Lore could manage to say. He simply could not tell her of his true intentions of being on board the Enterprise. If he did, he would lose everything. At this moment in time, he was not phased by the fact that his plan would surely be obliterated, instead, he was worrying about the notion that he would almost definitely lose her. And, he could not bear for that to happen.

"Why?" Grace persisted. She walked over to the large, plain white sofa that was situated in the corner and sat down. After more than five minutes, she still did not see any signs of Lore even attempting to respond, so she decided to drop the question. "Look, it doesn't matter. Just... sit down." She patted the space of the couch next to her.

Taking in the ensign's welcoming gesture, Lore made his way to the couch and sat down. He didn't sit next to her, instead, he sat as far away from her as was physically possible to do. He hung his head and sighed, exhaling deeply and loudly.

Seeing how distant he was from her, Grace shuffled along the couch until she was sat right next to him. "Just..." she began, "calm down... please."

"I know, I know, I'm sorry." Lore replied loudly.

"Shhh..."

"I'm sorry, Grace." He shifted his position ever so slightly, so little that it was hardly worth mentioning, but nonetheless he moved. He was now facing her. He feared even the very thought of upsetting her.

"Lore..." She tried to make her voice seem firm, but she could not and it soon broke and cracked. "If its me, then..." Although she did not really show it, she braced herself for Lore's response.

"What? No!" Lore interrupted her, in a sharp tone. He was confused because he was not entirely sure what he had done wrong. He was also rather angry.

As she felt the tears starting to form, Grace sniffed in a vain attempt to prevent her nose from running. The tears were now streaming down her face in smooth, fluid, continuous movements and she could not seem to stop them. Just as her vision was almost at the point where it was clouded so greatly by the tears, she felt them begin to disappear. Lore had placed his pale, brisk hand to her warm cheek, wiping away the many tears. "Its not you." He lifted her chin, holding it firmly yet gently and stared deeply into her bright, ultramarine eyes. "You're perfect."

Grace felt her mood begin to slightly be uplifted. "I doubt that." She sniffed.

"Well, don't" He added. "This is my fault. Its not yours. Don't ever think that." Lore hated himself for acting so weak and so gullible. How could it be that he actually loved this girl?

Grace considered what he had said and then leant her head down, so that it was resting on his broad shoulders.

"I... love you." Lore said, swallowing. Now, he knew that he was capable of love. In some ways, he felt himself beginning to feel sorry for his brother. For, Data was all alone in that dark and foreboding compound. Data could never feel love.

Grace lifted her head up off of his shoulders, as she fixed her faze upon his eyes. They were amber in colour, which could be seen by many, to denote anger. But, Grace thought of it more as though they portrayed loneliness. Lore's hands were resting her lap and she placed her delicate hand on one of them, holding it tightly. "I love you too, Lore."

Caressing her supple chin, he held her head, softly. As he stroked her smooth, silky dark brown hair, she brought her face forward marginally; their nose were almost touching. Lore felt her lips brush against the top of his lightly and he kissed her gently.

As they pulled themselves out of the kiss, their foreheads touched. Grace felt Lore's cold body against her, making her shiver slightly. She felt safe and warm. "Don't ever leave me, Lore." She whispered. It was as if time seemed to stand still, she did not want this moment to end. Whenever she was with him, she felt safe.

Lore, himself, knew that he could not promise her anything. It was only a matter of time until captain Picard would realise that 'Data' was not himself. In addition, Lore did not know how to react when and if he found the emotion chip. He wanted to continually persuade himself that he could not love Grace, but he did. He could see no way to stop himself from doing so. He had never been loved. At one time, he did feel something akin to love for his brother, Data, and Dr Soong, but as soon as he learned that they had more or less betrayed him, those feelings were soon gone. But, he could not bring himself to say no to her. How could he? "I won't." Needing to satisfy his suspicions, he added, "I promise."

The room was dark, which gave the appearance of Grace's bright blue eyes being incandescent. Her dark eyelashes fluttered, making them stand out even more so. Now, Lore knew what it felt like to be loved, for real.

The kiss morphed into an embrace. His arms were were wrapped tightly around her back, hers, looped around his neck. As she brought her head upon his shoulder, he could smell the faint scent of her perfume.

Then, all of a sudden, Grace yawned. This made her feel, understandably, very embarrassed. She quickly placed her hand over her mouth in order to catch the annoying yawn. She blinked a little, before apologising for yawning, "I'm sorry. I'm just a little tired." She said, smiling.

This made Lore laugh slightly. A snarky laugh. "I'll leave if you want some rest." He said politely. He wasn't usually polite, but, this was one of the times when he actually was.

Grace found his suggestion very sweet and kind, and she wanted to just stay with him, but, to be honest, all she wanted was to rest. She had had a long day, and the paper which he still had to improve so that she could have a chance of becoming a lieutenant was due in soon. And, although she didn't really want to push him away, she felt that she more or less had to. "Okay, thank you." She smiled as she watched him leave the room. She didn't really mean for him to actually leave the quarters, but, she felt that maybe Lore wanted some breathing space too, so she left him to it.

Lore hadn't really been doing anything of much importance whilst he was out of Grace's way. He had been wandering around the ship for at least one hour, and if not, more. For the rest of the time, he had been in the Holodeck. He hadn't even bothered any particular setting, he was just stood in there, thinking about various things.

After a while, he decided to leave the Holodeck and he made his way back to his and Grace's quarters. Well, they were actually Data's quarters, as a matter of fact.

He was very careful not to make any noise when he entered the quarters and he soon saw that Grace was indeed fast asleep on the bed. He walked over towards it and crawled under the covers with her.

Grace moved herself back rather violently when she felt Lore's cold hand touch hers. "Lore?" She whispered quietly.

"Yes?" He asked the simple question

"Where did you go?" She asked as she shuffled over, so she was right beside Lore.

Lore looked at her and replied, "Nowhere important." The answer was very simple, but Grace trusted him and so she was happy with that answer and said no more of it. Lore put his arms around her and drew her into him and he watched as she promptly fell asleep in his arms, with her head resting on his chest.

Lore, being an android, did not have any need of sleep, and so he just lay there and looked at Grace as he gently stroked her hair in smooth, continuous motions.


	12. Confrontation

It was the next day and Lieutenant Andy Summers was feeling very tired and all he wanted to do was to simply lay down and rest. Five engineers had been ill with the flu, and so he was forced to work an extra shift. It was his fault, to be fair, he had chosen to stay up late the previous night. What was worse, he hadn't even been staying up late for any good reason in particular. All he could think about was Grace Fletcher. He had always liked her. She and him had all their classes back at Starfleet Academy together and they used to live in the same street, that was, until he had to move house.

He remembered how, every Halloween, they would go trick or treating together, but that was many years ago now. He was now a grown man and he knew that he had to stop dwelling on the past. He was twenty seven, but he did not act his age. He and Grace attended the same high school, prior to enlisting in Starfleet. He had even taken her to senior prom, but now, she seemed to have lost interest in him altogether.

When they received the news that they would both be serving on board the USS Enterprise-D together, he was ecstatic, but Grace's mood was closer to that of neutrality. She had quickly become friends with an ensign of the same age, Sarah Saunders. Andy liked to believe that this was the case because he had been promoted to the rank of lieutenant, while Grace still held the rank of ensign. He didn't really understand it as it didn't make that much sense. He had always thought of Grace as the better officer; she was more caring, thoughtful and intelligent than he was.

But, he was much more outspoken. So, he gathered that his ability to speak openly to other people and voice his opinion well without hesitation was the main reason that he had been promoted. It was a well known fact that it would be very hard for an officer to have their rank increase if they were, for lack of a better word, shy.

He also realised that his strong capability of voicing his opinion could be easily viewed as simple pretentiousness. He liked to think that this wasn't the case, but, nevertheless, he did. He didn't see any reason as to why he shouldn't be arrogant. He was very handsome, with dark blonde hair and a neatly sculpted face. His striking facial appearance was also echoed by his body. He was physically fit and had a robust figure. He knew very well that many of the female officers swooned after him, but, although knowledge of that was very satisfying to him, the truth was, he didn't really care that much. The only woman he wanted to be with, ever since his first day of high school when she sat down next to him during first period, was Grace Fletcher.

He worked in engineering with her, but they didn't have that many shifts working there at the same time. He knew those he worked with well, but, to his shame, he didn't know all of their names. The only names he could seem to recall were lieutenant junior grade Reginald Barclay, ensign Michael Lee, lieutenant Charlotte Matthews and, of course, ensign Sarah Saunders.

He didn't much like ensign Saunders. He quite often viewed her as the person who stole Grace from him. Obviously, they were just friends, but he simply held a grudge against Sarah. He found her annoying and he didn't appreciate her love of classical music, especially opera. All she would talk about, every single minute of every day was Bach and Mozart and Beethoven. She would always say how it let her 'open her mind', but he thought it was just boring, repetitive and whiny. He also knew that Grace didn't like Sarah's obscure musical taste either, and he, himself, disliked how Sarah would continually manage to rope Grace into visiting the Holodeck to view an old eighteenth century musical or, even worse, a Klingon Opera.

Andy, and indeed Grace, preferred more modern music. To be more precise, they were practically in love with rock music. Grace used to have a basically non-existent music taste, but once she and Andy had become acquainted, he introduced her to heavy metal and, to his surprise, she liked it. From then on, Grace would start to dress in black, when not in her regulation Starfleet Uniform. Andy, himself, never actually actually dressed in a way which would show his taste in music, nonetheless, it was his main passion. That, and, working on board the best ship that Starfleet had to offer, the USS Enterprise.

Once, he had even taken the time to recreate a simulation of a heavy metal concert from Earth's period of the twentieth century. Of course, it was only a simulated situation in the Holodeck, but Grace told him that it was the nicest and kindest thing that anyone had ever done for her.

Now, however, ever since the moment when engineering shifts started to become changed around, Grace found herself working very closely with lieutenant commander Geordi La Forge. Andy wasn't actually jealous of Geordi, he was jealous of Data. Grace and La Forge had grown quite close and Geordi was always telling her of his and Data's escapades. Once, he told her of a time when Data somehow grew a beard and what happened during the unfortunate incident in which the crew were subject to the polywater intoxication. Contrary to common belief, the polywater also had an effect on Data, as it infected his positronic brain.

Every day, whenever there was time to spare, Grace would tell Sarah about what Geordi had told her about the android officer. And, over time, Grace found herself becoming attracted to lieutenant commander Data. This made it even harder for Andy to cope, as it meant that Grace preferred someone who wasn't even a... man, over him. He would have taken it somewhat marginally better if it had been, for example, Geordi La Forge, as he was actually a person. All Andy saw Data as was a bundle of wires, without an instruction manual.

Regardless, it was only in fact recently that Grace had managed to gather the courage to even engage in conversation with Data. Andy knew how beautiful Grace was and he also knew that many of the male officers found her attractive, including the Enterprise's first officer, commander Riker. Andy felt overprotective of her and he didn't want to see her get hurt and he didn't want the android to take advantage of her, if he was even capable of doing so.

Andy didn't even think that Grace would even be able to bring herself to talking to Data, but she did and it had definitely paid off. She and Data had only actually been talking for around a month or two but they seemed very close. Andy hated how she was able to like him, as he was just a machine and nothing more. Andy had originally thought that Data was physically incapable of love, but that idea was spurned by the fact that every day, he would overhear her talking to about her relationship with Data. He would constantly her discussing how sweet and thoughtful Data was and how interesting he was.

Once, Andy had told her what he, himself, thought of Data and she had slapped him. He said that Data was simply nothing more than a machine, a hunk of metal, and he didn't see anything wrong with that observation. After all, it was, to some extent, the truth.

As he was making his way towards his personal quarters, on deck eight, in need of a rest, he saw something that he did not want to see. What he saw caused a sharp shivering sensation to shoot down his spine and he felt upset. Well, to be honest, it was a feeling that was much more than simply being upset. He felt angry and jealous and, in some ways, cheated. This, he knew was ridiculous, as he and Grace had not had a relationship that was more than friendship for many years. Grace knew that, but Andy didn't want to admit it.

His quarters were very close to those of lieutenant commander Data. He noticed Data, at least he thought it was Data, when it was in fact Lore, and Grace walk out of the quarters, looking happy. Not only were they smiling, but they were laughing too. The android had his arm wrapped around her shoulder, as they strolled into the corridor. Andy tried to prevent himself from thinking about what Grace and Data had been doing that could make them appear to be so happy.

Unbeknownst to Andy, it wasn't actually Data who he had seen with Grace, it was Lore. He decided it would be best if he and 'Data' reconciled their differences, and so he made an attempt. "Hey, Data!" He yelled across the corridor. His tone of voice seemed to denote the fact that he was simply making an attempt to try and be friendly. But, his intentions were not entirely genuine. He knew that addressing a senior officer by their first name wasn't a very wise, nor respected move, but that didn't stop him.

"What do you want?" Grace cast a disapproving look in Andy's direction. She folded her arms and sighed wearily.

So, Andy explained, albeit, his response was only half sincere. "Nothing, I just wanted to know how my favourite android's doing. That's all."

Lore looked at Andy, unsure of what to say. He knew that the sort of reply that Data would give would be overly polite, not exactly Lore's strong point. However, Lore knew that if his scheme was to work, he needed to act like Data, so that was what he did. "I am... fine, lieutenant." He replied simply. And, saying so, he and Grace continued on there way to wherever they were going.

"Oh, and..." Andy called out again.

Hearing his voice, Grace and Lore turned around and Andy jogged up to them, adding, "May I say how fine you're looking today?" He looked at Grace and winked, clicking his teeth. He wasn't really sure why he had said what he said, but he decided that it was partly because he was bored and partly because he felt like it.

Lore suddenly felt threatened by this man. He was disgusted by how Andy had talked to Grace. He had no right to say that to her. "What did you just say?" He snarled through clenched teeth, staring at Andy's smug face.

Andy shrugged. "I was just saying how... nice Grace is looking today." He smiled arrogantly.

Feeling Lore start to tense up, Grace reassured him. "Just leave it. He's not worth it."

"You can't let him talk to you like that!" Lore said.

"Its not that big a deal. Believe me, I'm used to it." Grace said. She stepped forward and put her arm on Lore's shoulder. It was only a feeble contact, but she had been desperately hoping that it would prompt Lore to just leave the conversation there, and simply ignore it. That, however didn't work. Grace was also thinking that doing this seemingly insignificant action would make Andy see just how serious her and Lore's relationship was, but, much to her despair, that did not work either.

"Yeah," Andy interrupted their conversation, "why don't you listen to her?" He said; his facial expression was something in between a smirk and a grin. Regardless, it was certainly not a very pleasant look.

Once again, Lore's body tensed up, filled with and Grace kept her grip on him, saying to him, "Just let it go." Despite her calming words and tone of voice, Lore could not. Perhaps he just wasn't used to love, and so he felt too overprotective. Lore stepped forward so that his and Andy's foreheads were almost in contact. "Say you're sorry." As soon as he had said that, Lore cursed himself silently. He had just used a contraction, and he hoped that Andy didn't notice, which, to his gratitude, he didn't.

Andy stepped closer, and now his and Lore's foreheads were touching. "Why should I?" He snarled and now Lore could actually feel Andy's breath on him. It made him feel uncomfortable and it slightly unnerved him. For Andy, the experience would have been very different, as Lore didn't really breath, at least not in the usual sense anyway.

Lore, all of a sudden, felt the rage build up inside of him, and he could not control it. He swung his arm back and his fist then promptly made contact with Andy's right temple. Stepping back as a result of the pain, Andy wiped his head, feeling the warm blood trickle down the side of his face. He didn't want to turn and run with his tail between his legs, he wanted to prove to Grace that he was the better man. So, he stood his ground and threw a punch, as hard as he was physically able, directed at Lore's nose. As his fist hit Lore, it was Andy, instead, who felt the pain. Lore's body was solid, built from some of the most durable materials that were available, making him very strong and able to withstand a great deal of impact. A punch from a human would be no match for him.

Andy took a step back, inspecting his wounded hand, wincing as he did so. He didn't make any discernible noises, but, instead, continued to wind up Lore. "You're not even a man." He announced.

Lore's face twitched ever so slightly and, once more, he could not contain his anger and he hit Andy in the face with a solid movement. The impact sent pain ricocheting throughout his Andy's body and he stumbled backwards, holding his nose, from which blood was seeping quickly.

Luckily for both Andy and Lore, there were not many witnesses to this scene, but there were a few. They were, however, seemingly scared off by the looks on the faces of Lore and Andy.

Andy walked up to Lore, after regaining his temporary loss of balance and spat in his face. He then spun on his heel and began to walk slowly to his quarters. As he did so, his face was continuously contorted into an expression which denoted the pain he was in, not to mention the intense humiliation.

"Are you okay?" Grace asked Lore once she was sure that Andy had left.

Lore said nothing but walked away. Grace quickly caught up with him. Once she had done so, she stood in front of him. She had to look up as he was slightly taller than him. Lore tried to ignore her, but he couldn't. He attempted to just simply look over her head, but he gave up with that and could not help but look her in the eye.

"Lore..." She said as soon as the corridor was empty. "That was really brave of you." She smiled, placing her arms behind his neck, gently pulling his head down towards hers.

"It was stupid." Lore glanced down to the side, looking out of the window. He saw the many stars that were sat there, simply still, almost as if they were somehow stapled to the blanket of the night sky. The Enterprise wasn't at warp speed yet, as it had no need to be, and it was simply drifting along the immense void that was space. It made him think of how he had once drifted in that great void, for so long. He had been so alone and he had felt as though he hated everyone and everything. Now, he realised that he was loved.

"I mean it." She put her hands on each of his cheeks, feeling how very cold they were. She felt him place his hands on to of hers, feebly trying to put them down to her side, but she held them against his face. "No other man would have done that." She added. "You stood up for me."

"You heard what he said, about how many other men... liked you. I'm sure they would've done the same."

"No, they wouldn't." Grace stroked his face gently. "Yeah, they like me. So what? No one has ever actually loved me."

"I thought Andy did." Lore pointed out.

"No, not like you do. Like every other guy I've gone out with, they're just interested in what I look like. They just want the body and the looks. You're not like that, I know you're not. Me and Andy, we used to be... together, I guess. I thought of us just as friends, but he thought it was more than it actually was."


	13. Altercation in Ten Forward

As Sarah Saunders allowed her gaze to look freely around the room, she caught sight of her friend, Grace Fletcher and who she perceived to be lieutenant commander Data. They looked happy together; they were sat next to each other in one of the many booths that were situated by the large floor to ceiling observation windows in Ten Forward. Grace had her head resting on Lore's shoulder and they were simply staring out into the mysterious abyss that represented the night sky.

Grace was Sarah's best friend and Sarah didn't like the fact that she could get hurt. She had heard a fairly recent rumour that was about Lore attacking lieutenant Andy Summers. Of course, Sarah didn't care much for Andy, but she was still worried. She knew that androids possessed superior strength in both the physical and the mental aspects, which heightened her anxiety. So, feeling the need to satisfy both her curiosity and her anxiety, Sarah got up from the bar stool, bringing her cup of black coffee with her and then proceeded to walk over to were Grace and Lore were.

"How are you?" Sarah asked Grace as she sat down opposite them. As soon as she had sat down, Lore cast her a look which conveyed his annoyance. He had obviously just wanted to be left in peace with Grace and Sarah had just come and ruined any chance of that even happening.

Grace lifted her head up off of Lore's shoulders as soon as she had seen that Sarah had joined them at the table. "Oh, hey Sarah." She exclaimed. "Yeah, I'm alright. Why do you ask?"

Sarah didn't really want to let her intentions shine through, so he gave an obscure answer. "Well... you're my friend and I just wanted to know how you were..."

"Right." Grace was unconvinced and her facial expression showed to Sarah very clearly what she was thinking.

Sarah sighed and then began to unravel. "Its just that I heard about what happened and wondered if you were hurt or not."

"Thanks, but really, I'm fine. It's Lo..." Grace cursed herself under her breath; she almost said 'Lore', but she managed to stop herself from doing so, before it was too late. "... It's Data who you should be worrying about. After all, he's the one who got punched."

"Punched?! I never thought it was that crazy!" Sarah smiled. "I thought it was just a heated argument."

"Well, no, it wasn't." Grace concluded. She the looked up at Lore and said to him quietly, whilst smiling, "Could you leave us alone?"

The expression on Lore's face gave Grace the impression that he felt neglected, so she added to her request. "Please."

Lore cocked his head. "Why?"

"Just, you know, girl talk." Grace replied and Lore nodded and reluctantly stood up. Just as he was about the leave, Grace put her hand on his arm. "Don't I get a kiss?" She asked, looking up at him.

Lore quickly looked around the room, not wanting anyone to see him and then, once he was sure that the coast was clear, he bent down and kissed Grace on the lips softly. He looked at her briefly before walking out of Ten Forward.

"You look really cute together." Sarah voiced her opinion.

Smiling, Grace said, "Thanks."

Sarah took a sip of her coffee, before exclaiming, "That's hot." She then promptly placed it back down on the table, in order to wait for it to cool down.

"Was that really all you wanted to say?" Grace asked her, unconvinced.

Sarah laughed, as she stirred her coffee. "Do you really love him?" She asked, curiously.

"Why do you want to know?"

"No reason, in particular. Its just that, well, you know, Data is a machine. I didn't even know that he was even capable of loving." She confessed.

Grace, herself, knew that this man that she was in love with was not lieutenant commander Data, it was his brother, Lore. "I don't care what anyone else thinks, Sarah. I love him, can't we just leave it at that?" She asked.

Sarah nodded. "I suppose. But, what was that fight about. You know, with Andy and Data?"

Sighing, Grace agreed to tell her, after all, Sarah was her closest and most trusted friend. "Well, you know how Andy has always... liked me, right?" She began.

"Uh uh." She nodded, taking a sip of her coffee and wincing at the feel of the hotness of it on her tongue. "And, for the record," she added, "he more than 'liked' you."

"Well, whatever, anyway, that's not really the point."

"I see. Anyway, how is it? You know, having big roomy quarters?"

"I've told you before. They're not my quarters. I just stay there with him, from time to time. And, just for the record, it is nice to have quarters where there's room to swing a cat.

"No pun intended, I guess."

"What do you mean, 'no pun intended'?" Grace asked, perplexed at what Sarah had said.

"Well, Data's got a cat, hasn't he? An annoying little brown thing."

"I haven't seen Spot lately." Grace wondered.

"Its not even a spotty cat and he called it Spot?" She mused.

Grace rolled her eyes. She wondered where that cat had got to. Would it even be able to tell the difference between Data and Lore? She didn't think so.

"Do you want me to leave you?" Sarah asked as she caught sight of Lore walking into Ten Forward.

Grace lifted her head up. "What? Why?"

"Data's here." She pointed over to the door of the room.

"No, you're fine. You can stay. Just, wait there for one moment." She stood up and briskly made her way to Lore, who was still quite close to the door of Ten Forward. As soon as she had reached him, she reminded him. "Sarah thinks you're Data, just like everyone else, so, I'm going to have to call you Data. Okay?" She asked in a quiet voice.

Lore nodded and kissed her on the cheek as they walked over to where Sarah was sat and they joined her at the table.

"Where did you go?" Sarah asked Lore once he had sat down opposite her.

Lore shrugged his shoulders. "Nowhere important." He whispered into Grace's ear, "Why is she here?"

"Shh..." Grace said to him, before looking back at Sarah and smiling. "Me and Sarah where just having a nice chat." She said to him.

"Yeah," Sarah nodded in agreement, "it was quite interesting."

Lieutenant Andy Summers strolled into Ten Forward at that very moment. He was wearing his usual engineering division uniform, but he didn't look all that well. He had a piece of bloody tissue held up to his nose, and, in addition, a black eye.

One of Lieutenant Summers' friends, ensign George Burly, sat down next to him at the bar. "Hey," he whispered, "isn't that, you know, Data?" He asked.

Andy looked over his shoulder, and sure enough, it appeared to be lieutenant commander Data. "So what?" He asked glumly.

"He's with her, Grace, I mean."

"Yeah, do you have a point?"

George sighed. "Don't I always?"

"No, you don't."

"Well, anyway. Doesn't it bother you?"

"What?"

"How that damn robot managed to get Grace, and you didn't." He relied in a blunt tone of voice.

"Of course it bothers me, you idiot!"

"All right, all right, I was only asking." He whined.

Andy turned around, instead of just simply glancing over his shoulder as he had done earlier, to observe the 'happy couple'. He felt the jealousy starting to form inside of him, and he could not stop it.

Seeing his friend and colleague's odd expression, George guessed that something was wrong. "What's up, Andy?" He asked.

"That does it!" Andy got up from the stool in one solid movement and slammed the table, making George jump at the sound.

"What are you going to do?" George asked him, worried and confused.

Andy didn't reply, but just proceeded to walk over to the place where Lore, Grace and Sarah were sat.

"Don't do anything stupid!" George yelled at him. "You'll be no match for him!" Seeing that he was going to get no sense out of his friend, George turned his attention back to the bar and ordered something to eat. He wasn't quite sure at first, but then he decided to order an ice cream. He thought it might help to lighten the mood.

George, although he never really liked to admit it, had always been a little jealous of Andy. Andy was well-built, tall, strong and blonde. He had an excellent physique and very visible cheek bones. George, whenever he happened to look in the mirror, which was not actually very often, all he saw was a slim, medium-height man. Nonetheless, he thought to himself, at least he wasn't ginger. Well, in a manner of speaking he was, but only very slightly. His hair was a sort of shade of light brown, but, whenever it was in a well-lit area, it did appear to be ginger.

Andy walked up to the table, breathing heavily.

"Looks like we've got company." Sarah pointed out the obvious as she caught sight of Andy strutting, full of confidence, towards them.

Grace put her hands on her forehead. "Dammit," she exclaimed quietly. She rubbed her face, wearily. "What do you want now?" She asked. She was fed up with Andy's remarks. Although she knew that there would be quite a few people who wouldn't necessarily agree with her and Lore's relationship, she knew that Andy would take it very personally.

"Stay out of it. Why don't you let your stupid little robot man speak for himself?" He replied sarcastically; his tone of voice was whiny.

Lore stood up from the chair, quite obviously enraged. Grace put her hand on his leg in a vain attempt to calm him down, but Lore stayed standing up. Grace stood up, so she and Andy were face to face. "Why can't you just leave him alone?"

"I just told you." He then smirked, before adding, "Stay out of this." Andy extended his arm and pushed Grace back, so hard that she lost her balance and fell back down on to the seat. Luckily, the seat was rather soft, so she wasn't at all injured, just annoyed. Andy did care for Grace, he knew that, but he was just very jealous of Lore and how Grace could love an android. He wanted to find some way of venting out his frustration, of which he had a lot.

Furious, Lore took a small step forward, moving closer to Andy. "Don't talk to her like that!" He felt himself becoming more protective of her.

"Or what? What are you going to do, you son of a bitch?" He yelled angrily, appearing not to care at all that there were quite a few people in Ten Forward who were watching what was happening. Andy aimed for Lore's nose, but he hit his neck instead. It caused the android partial discomfort, but nothing severe.

Although Lore had no desire whatsoever to start a fight with Andy, he really had no choice in the matter. He knew that he would win, and Andy probably knew that too. And so, in response, Lore drew his fist back and struck Andy square in the jaw. Lore could feel it and hear it click as Andy fell backwards, onto the hard floor. He had forgotten how... satisfying it was to injure people. It made Lore, once again, feel a certain sense of dominance over people.

There were only a few people in Ten Forward, but the few who were there had crowded around Andy's unconscious body, in awe.

As soon as she could draw her attention away from the unconscious body of lieutenant Summers, Grace turned her gaze back to Lore. "Are you okay?" She asked him as he slumped back down into the chair.

"Yes." He nodded. He felt as though he should apologise, and so he did. "Sorry."

"Don't be. Its all Andy's fault. He's just a jerk. Can we leave now?" She stood up.

But, before they could get to the door, a security team blocked their path. "Lieutenant commander Data?" Worf asked him, once he and the rest of the security team had reached Ten Forward, in his distinctive low, gruff tone of voice.

"Yes?" Lore asked. He had two theories on why a security team had been called to Ten Forward. The first was simply because of the short-lived fight between Andy and himself taking place, which did not bother him all that much. However, the second theory was much more alarming to him. Lore wondered if Picard had somehow managed to find out that the android officer who he had known for so long was actually Lore masquerading as him. But, he doubted this. The crew still had no leads on the mysterious transporter situation or on the fact that one of the security chiefs had been attacked.

"I am to escort you to the brig, immediately."

Lore looked back at Grace, who could do nothing except stare, as he was being lead out of Ten Forward.

"Mr Data, what has gotten into you?" Captain Picard frowned once Lore was in the cell, in the detention facility of the Enterprise.

Lore shook his head, being very careful to act like Data in every way. "I..." He had to remember not to use contractions "I do not know, sir."

"Hmmm..." Picard thought for a moment. "I have never seen you act in this way."

"I too, sir, am at a loss regarding why I acted the way I did. It is most likely because of the new emotion chip I have recently integrated into my positronic matrix."

"Yes, that is what La Forge said."

"I do apologize sir, if I have caused any inconveniences."

"That's quite all right, commander. Love can do strange things. Besides, all of the witnesses to the attack say that you were unduly provoked by lieutenant Summers."

"That is correct. Sir?"

"Yes, Data?" Picard asked.

"May I enquire as to how long I am expected to stay here?" He asked.

"Well, Mr Data, regardless of the circumstances at hand, Starfleet regulations state that you must be held here for twenty four hours."

Lore nodded. He knew that if it was actually Data in this situation, he would ask how Andy was, so he did, not that he cared one way or the other. "How is lieutenant Summers?"

"He'll be fine. He's in sickbay now, but, seeing as all of the witnesses said that he was the one who aggravated you, he must be held in a detention cell just as you are now."

"Would it be possible for someone to... visit me, whilst I am here?"

"My my, Mr Data, you have changed. And, yes. Who is it you wish to see?"

"Grace Fletcher, sir."

"I shall see that she knows." Picard then walked out of the brig and proceeded to the Bridge, so he could continue his usual duties.

Less than ten minutes after Picard had walked out of the room, Grace walked in. "How are you?" She asked him.

"I am fine, Grace. You don't have to worry."

"I know, but, he hit you."

"Grace," he looked her in the eyes, "I cannot feel pain. He did not hurt me."

She nodded, relieved. "How long are you going to have to stay here?"

"The captain said it was regulation that I spend the day here."

"Oh." She looked glumly at the floor.

Lore reached his arm out, but he was forced to bring it back as the force field which held him in the cell became apparent. "I will be out soon."

"I know." She looked up. "What's going to happen to that moron, Andy?" She asked.

"Picard said that he could only spend the same amount of time here as I do."

"What? That's not fair. He hit you first!" She exclaimed.

"Yes, but we both hit each other, so, Picard says we're both to blame."

"Well then, where is he now?" She wondered.

"He is in sickbay."

"That's ridiculous. He doesn't deserve to be treated."

"There is no point in dwelling on it now."

"I guess you're right." Grace sighed. "Its my shift in a few minutes, I'd better go. I'll see you in the morning."

As he watched Grace walk out of the brig, Lore had a sudden thought. It was more of a longing. He was lonely and he was worried. Worried about what might happen to him and what might happen to Grace. But, what he was thinking about most, was the fact that he wanted to be able to touch her... to hold her.


	14. We have contact

Data connected the metal strip to the poly alloy conduction wire, and then, in turn, connected that to the battery which he had salvaged from the torch. Data had already found a speaker-type mechanism, which he then proceeded to connect to the battery. He knew all of the contact information of the USS Enterprise, having served on there so long as a senior officer. Data could not, however, engineer the transmitter so it was capable of subspace communication. Nonetheless, Data programmed in the coordinates with an adapted calculator and spoke into the speaker. "Lieutenant commander Data to Enterprise, do you read me?" He spoke, holding the microphone up to his lips as he did so. He heard no response, so he tried again. "I repeat. Lieutenant commander Data to Enterprise." There was still no reply. Data was unsure if he had calibrated the transmitter correctly, so he rewired it and attempted his transmission once more.

"Sir?" Lieutenant Worf began as he placed his hands firmly on the tactical display console.

In front of him, at a lower level, captain Picard was pondering the events of the day, nothing of relevant importance had happened so far, but still, Picard continued to muse. "Yes, Mr Worf?" He asked, as he broke his daydream.

The Klingon focused his attention back onto the tactical display that was set before him. "There is an incoming transmission." He stated bluntly.

"Do we know who the sender is?" The captain asked, rubbing his chin.

"No." Worf replied, studying the console. "It is not of any registered origin." He paused, before continuing. "However, the signal is not subspace."

"Is it a video transmission?" Picard asked.

"No." Worf shook his head. "It is a simple radio transmission. Should we answer the transmission?" He asked.

Picard thought about what the best course of action was, before looking to his first officer for some advice. "Number One?" He addressed his first officer.

He voiced his opinion. "I think we should answer it." Riker thought logically. "I don't see any point in ignoring it."

"Hmmmm..." Picard mused, considering the many outcomes that could stem from whatever action he took now.

"I mean, if its a radio transmission," Riker added, "the chances are, the rest of their technology won't be nearly as advanced as ours."

"Yes." Picard had decided. "Replay the hail." He ordered, and the Klingon tactical officer obeyed. He instructed the computer to do as it was asked.

"Lieutenant commander Data to Enterprise, do you read me?"

As soon as the computer had replayed the transmission, looks of panic and worry soon began to form over every single face of all the officers on the bridge. It was not yet Data's shift, and so, accordingly, Lore had not yet taken his place at the helm console, so he did not hear the transmission that Data had succeeded in sending to the USS Enterprise.

Back in the compound, Data was still unsure of the fact whether or not the Enterprise had actually even received his transmission. He knew that the fate of every man, every woman and even every child rested in the balance and would continue to do so unless he could successfully warn captain Picard of the danger. So, Data spoke into the microphone once again, holding it closer to his lips this time. "Data here. I repeat, lieutenant commander Data here." After pausing ever so slightly so he could gather his thoughts and think of something to say, he continued. "I am being held captive in this unknown location. However, the location of my whereabouts should not be difficult to determine, as this is an open and easily accessible frequency. It may appear," he continued, "that I am, at present, serving on the bridge. However, that is not me. That is my brother Lore, and if you do not already know, he is dangerous."

It had taken Data's second message slightly longer to reach the Enterprise, but only around a few minutes more, at most. This was because of the fact that the distance of the Enterprise, from Data, was continuously increasing and as the message was not a subspace transmission, its speed was limited to the speed of light.

At first, many of the bridge crew believed that this was one of Data's poor attempts at humour, with Riker being one of the sceptics. But, captain Jean-Luc Picard knew it was something else, and he was right.

In case Data's story was true, captain Picard gave the order for a response to be transmitted, but it was a vain attempt. There was no way of locking into the signal, and so they had no way of letting Data know that his message had been received.


	15. It hurts

Through word of mouth, Lore soon became aware of the fact that his brother had succeeded in contacting the Enterprise, and he was beginning to grow worried. He had since been released from the holding cell and was now trying to get some rest in Data's quarters, which he had commandeered.

Grace had been recently redecorating the personal quarters. She believed Lore when he told her that Data had left the Enterprise. At first, she did think it was very weird, because, she knew that lieutenant commander Data cared for every single crew member and civilian that was on board this magnificent ship, so he surely would have told someone where exactly he was going and why. Grace thought that it was very possible that Data would have only told the most senior officers aboard the ship, and, being only an ensign, she obviously would not have been told of it. She was very good friends with counsellor Deanna Troi, but even she appeared to not know of Data's whereabouts. Of course, he was being held, at the hands of Lore, in a secure compound, but no one knew of that. Grace liked to think that Deanna would have told her if Data had any plans of leaving, as Grace had told her how she felt about him. Regardless, Grace was busy and she still had a lot of planning to do about her possible promotion to the rank of lieutenant that she had hoped to achieve, for such a long time. She had a lot of things on her mind, and, even though she didn't know Data all that well, she knew him well enough to know that he was a private individual, and so it was entirely plausibly that he would not tell anyone where he was going.

Data's personal quarters were very Spartan, in that they were very dull. There were few ornaments on display, however, all being said, there used to be a large amount of paintings dotted around the room, which Data had painted. Grace liked his artwork and in some ways, admired it, but Lore had taken all of the paintings down. He didn't like the fact that they reminded him of his brother. Grace had been making an effort to make the room more creative. There was still no bed, but, when she spent the night there with Lore, there was a large couch near the back of the room. She had taken the time to display a few flower bouquets, which Lore protested against and she had taken one of the small sized cabinets from her and Sarah's quarters, so she could have somewhere to store her clothes, without having to travel between decks eight and nine.

Grace was with him, sat next to him on the couch. "Lore?" She lifted her head up off of his shoulder. "Is something wrong? You look worried."

Lore didn't reply, which prompted Grace to ask again. "Lore?"

Finally, seeing here anxious expression, he responded. "I'm fine, Grace."

"I know you're not. Is it because of Data? Are you missing him?"

Lore's expression began to grow darker. "No. Don't even say his name. Can't you tell that i've had enough of hearing about him?" He got up and began to pace around the room.

"Lore? What is it?"

"I can't tell you." He stopped pacing and stood still. He walked over to a wall and faced it.

Grace stood up and walked over so that she was stood behind him. "Lore, please tell me." She put his arm around her.

Lore looked down at her. "Grace, what don't you understand? I can't tell you."

"Well, if you won't tell me that, can you at least tell me you're all right?"

Lore shook his head. "No, I am not all right." He then began to make his way out of the room, when he was stopped by Grace, who put her hand on his arm. "Lore, where are you going?"

Lore turned around to face her and saw the worried look that she gave him. "I'm just going."

"But, where?" She did not release her grip from his arm.

"I can't tell you." He desperately wanted to tell her; to tell her everything, but he just couldn't bring himself to do it. He needed her trust and he feared that, once she knew the truth about his intentions, she would leave him. He could not risk the possibility of that happening.

"Lore..."

"No, Grace." His voice grew louder. "I can't tell you! Leave me." He demanded, before stepping away from her. He had originally planned to use the Enterprise's transporter systems to beam down to where he held Data captive. But, he had second thoughts as he realised that the ship's transporters would not be able to transport him the immense distance that it was to the compound. In addition to this problem, everything that transported to and from the Enterprise was checked and recorded, so Lore knew he would be caught.

Remembering the portable transporter he had taken with him, which he had developed by himself, he walked over to one of the cabinets in the quarters and pulled open the bottom drawer. In it was a small object that looked much like a microchip, except for the fact that it had two small light strips on either side. He then clipped it to the Starfleet issue uniform that he was wearing and pressed it.

However, just before he had pressed it, Grace had walked over to where he was standing and had grasped his free hand, saying, "If you can't tell me, then you'll have to show me."

Lore looked down at her, horrified. What had she done? But, it was too late. Before Lore could abort the transportation, his and her atoms had begun to shimmer and sparkle in a spectacular display of blue and grey, until they were gone.

Lieutenant commander Data had transmitted his distress radio signal to the Enterprise a little more than a day ago, but he still had not yet received a response, at least, not to his knowledge. For the past few hours or so, he had been sat in one of the two chairs which were in the compound, thinking. He wasn't thinking about anything in particular, but he was remembering the few years of his life. He had been thinking about the starship Enterprise, about the many crew that he had gotten to know well. He was thinking about captain Picard and his times at Starfleet Academy. Tasha Yar had also crossed his mind; their time together had only been brief, but he wished he could see her once more. For, he did not know what would happen if the Enterprise never found him. He could not die of old age, so to speak, so he could theoretically remain here for centuries. However, he estimated that Lore would return sooner rather than later, and he was right.

Only a few seconds after Lore had activated the portable transporter, he and Grace appeared in the compound. They had not materialised in the room in which Data was imprisoned, but in a room adjacent to it. "Lore? Where are we?" Grace began to grow concerned.

"Why did you do it?!" Lore yelled at the terrified ensign.

Grace looked at the floor and sniffed. "Do what?"

"You know what I mean!" He shouted. He knew the walls were reinforced with five feet of steel combination, as was the ceiling, so he highly doubted that Data would be able to hear a single word of what he and Grace were saying.

"I don't. I don't." She whimpered.

Lore wanted perilously for himself to be able to contain his fury and his anxiety, but, despite his best efforts, he could not. "Why did you transport down with me?" This time, when he spoke, he lowered his tone of voice slightly.

"I don't know." She walked away from him until she stood still when she was a little over ten metres away from him. "I don't know, I just wanted to be sure that you were okay, that's all. I'm sorry."

Lore could see how upset and confused Grace was and so he used all his strength in an attempt to contain his anger, which he did successfully. "Don't be sorry. It is my fault. Not yours." He said bluntly. Nevertheless, despite his apology, Grace did not show any signs of responding, she just simply stood there, facing a dark, gloomy wall. He walked over to her and put his arms around her. "I shouldn't have lashed out, I'm sorry." Lore's second attempt at an apology was not successful and still, Grace was still silent.

Grace had been listening to what Lore had said, and came to the realisation that Lore was not to blame for his actions. It was her decision to beam down with him, not his. "That's all right." She whispered to him softly. Lore's arms were still awkwardly wrapped around her, so she embraced him in return. Lore burrowed his head into her shoulders and felt her welcoming warmth and her sweet scent. "Thank you." He said simply.

"What is this place?" Grace asked the inevitable question.

Lore sighed, for he knew that she was going to ask it any time soon, but he was not prepared for it. He was at a loss regarding what to say to her, in response to the question. He couldn't simply say that he had his brother imprisoned, like some sort of an animal, in this place. On the other hand, he could not bring himself to lie to her either.

Grace felt a sharp chill trickle down her spine and she shuddered. "Its so cold down here!" She exclaimed, rubbing her arm up and down in an attempt to get warm quickly and effectively. She began to pace up and down. There were no windows, and thus, no source of light. There being no light meant that the heat that could access the room was extremely limited and was definitely far from even being adequate.

As Lore was an android, he did not feel the cold, so the apparent low temperatures did not really phase him in the slightest. Nevertheless, he could quite obviously deduce that Grace was able to feel the cold, and it was certainly near freezing in the compound. He felt that it was the right thing to do if he asked her how she was. "Grace," he began, "are you cold?"

She knew that she had just made it clear that she was very cold, but she found it really considerate of Lore to ask her again. "Yeah." She responded before she shivered again.

Lore wasn't entirely sure what he should do. If he had a jacket with him, or a coat, he would have almost definitely given it to Grace, so she could stay warm, but he had no clothing of that kind with him at the time. He was wearing his regulation Starfleet issue uniform, and he couldn't realistically take it off.

"I knew I shouldn't have worn a skant!" She sighed, as she looked down at her legs which were almost visibly shaking. She wasn't particularly pale, but, nonetheless, she could just about manage to see faint goosebumps starting to appear.

Lore simply tightened his grip as he put his arms around her shoulders, not at all violently, but Grace could easily feel that it was increasing.

"Lore," Grace pulled herself away from him slowly, "why were you going to come down here in the first place?" She found herself becoming more and more curious.

He looked at the floor, and then looked around the dark, almost morbid room, sighing. It was a sigh that represented guilt, and in some ways, fear. "There was something..." he began to talk, but his voice promptly trailed off until it became absolute silence.

Grace didn't know what to do. She knew, very well, that she could very simply just repeat the question, but she had second thoughts. She had asked him questions which she had perceived to just be usual, but Lore obviously did not view it the same way that she did. He had lashed out at her, only recently in the moments before they transported down to where they were now. She subsequently came to the conclusion that it would be best if she did not ask any further questions. She knew it was difficult for Lore. After all, he was an android, who had never even felt love, either at his own hands or at the hands of others and she realised that he probably just felt lost, and maybe alone. "If you don't feel like you're ready to tell me, then I don't mind. It doesn't matter." She smiled broadly. "I trust you."

Those last few words that Grace had just spoken caused some sort of emotion to come to life inside of Lore. He had no idea what it could be, but, nevertheless, he could not prevent it from becoming stronger and stronger, which it most definitely was.


	16. Romulans

A/N: If any of you guys are interested, the Romulan, Jo'rek well make an appearance in a new fic I'm working on. I'll get that done as soon as, but, y'know, GCSEs kinda get in the way.

"Sir.." The young ensign spoke assertively to her captain. "Scanners have detected an unknown vessel in Federation space." She tried ever so hard to make her tone of voice sound calm, but the truth was she was about as far from being calm as it was even possible to be. She had only just been assigned to the USS Enterprise-D, and it was her first ever assignment. To start of with, she was as nervous as she could be, but it was soon balanced out with excitement. She had heard, from numerous people back at Starfleet Academy that the Enterprise was the best ship that Earth had to offer, so she took every chance she could of showing off to her friends. A few of the people she knew had been assigned on board the Enterprise, but only she had been assigned bridge duty.

He was rather annoyed at the fact that this officer had just disrupted his perfect daydream. He was dreaming about anything specific, but, he was tired. He didn't like to admit this, but he couldn't lie to himself; he was simply tired. He had been reading, up until the latest hours of the night. He couldn't really help it. The book which he was reading was called Moby-Dick. He had read it well over seven times before, but it was his favourite book, and so he had decided to read it again. He had been pondering the plot over and over again. In some ways, he thought to himself, he was rather a bit like Captain Ahab, and he couldn't figure out whether or not this was something to be proud of. Whilst he was at school in France, many moons ago, he had always felt a little out of place in his English classes. For, when all his friends and fellow classmates were reading modern literature, he could always be found in the corner reading an all time classic, like The War of the Worlds, or another favourite of his, The Hobbit. As a child once, he had, being a very keen reader, read all of The Lord of the Rings in a few days. For this reason, his teacher had placed him in detention for cheating, which was absurd, as he had read that book word for word.

Captain Picard glanced up and looked at the helm, where the young ensign was."Yes, ensign Macintosh?" He asked her, rubbing his chin. He wasn't sure of what sort of ship could be traversing this section of the quadrant that didn't belong to Starfleet. "Do we know what sort of ship it is?" He asked.

Ensign Macintosh turned around, so she was facing the captain. "No, sir. It appears to have some sort of cloaking device." She stated, before turning her attention back to the helm.

Riker sat up in his chair, and crossed his legs. "Damn Romulans!" He exclaimed quietly, but not as quiet as he had thought he had. The captain, who sat right next to him had heard, but, fortunately, he wasn't that bothered.

"We can't know that for sure, Number One." Picard added. "Mr Worf," he began again, "is the vessel of Romulan origin?"

The Klingon bent down ever so slightly, staring deeply at the tactical display diagram that was situated in front of him. Scanning the Okudagram for the unidentified ship's energy patterns, he glanced up and nodded his head. "Yes, sir. The vessel is Romulan."

"What on earth would a Romulan ship be doing here?" Captain Picard wondered, taking a quick look around the room.

Riker sighed, and then voiced his opinion. "Well, having Romulans in your back garden is never a good thing."

Picard slowly nodded his head, to signify his agreement with his first officer's point. "Yes, but, are they going to attack?" He pondered the situation for a short while before turning to his left. "Counsellor, do you sense anything from the ship?" Picard asked Troi for her opinion.

The Betazoid shook her head. "No, captain. I am not able to sense anything from them. The distance is too great."

Picard pondered what Deanna Troi had just said. He knew he had to be completely and utterly sure of what the intentions of the Romulans were. Of course, from personal experience and common knowledge, Picard knew all too well that the Romulans were certainly not to be approached. However, regardless of the risks involved, Picard gave the order, "Ensign, one quarter impulse."

"Heading, sir?" Macintosh swivelled around in her chair with a look of uncertainty on her face.

Picard did not hesitate when he responded. "Straight ahead."

"Sir," Riker interrupted, "that will take us right next to the Romulans." He pointed out.

"Yes, I know, Number One. But, it is our duty to explore, and so we must."

William Riker shook his head, disapprovingly. "They'll destroy us." He said bluntly.

"I know, but that's a risk we have to take."

And, Riker said no more.

"Counsellor?" Captain Jean-Luc Picard piped up again. "Can you sense anything now?" He asked her.

Deanna shook her head. "No, I can't." Then, she closed her eyes for a short while and stared out at the huge view screen that stood before her. "Wait..." She said softly, before opening her eyes again. "I can sense something."

"What is it?" Riker asked Troi.

"It is nothing for us to be alarmed about," she replied casually.

"Sir." Worf's masculine and gruff voice bellowed above the captain. "The ship is not very advanced. It is not a threat to us." After looking at the tactical station's display screen for further information on the matter, Worf added to his explanation. "The vessel is a patrol ship."

"But, what would a vessel of this sort be doing with a cloaking device?" Picard mused.

Riker sat up, leaning forwards, his finger pointing towards the view screen. "They're Romulans, all of their ships probably have them."

"That does seem logical, Number One." Picard saw the validity of what commander Riker had just said.

"I suggest we hail them." Riker said.

"Hmmm..." Picard pondered. "How can you be sure they'll respond?"

"Its either that or open fire."

"Very well." Picard then turned his attention to the Klingon lieutenant. "Mr Worf, make it so."

"Aye, sir." He nodded and then prepared to open a transmission to the Romulan vessel. After a few moments, he spoke up again. "Sir, they are not responding to the hail."

"Try again." Picard suggested.

Worf shook his head. "Still no response, sir." Worf looked down at the tactical display console and then staggered back in horror. "Sir!" He said loudly to the captain. He was not quite shouting, but there was some degree of stress and anxiety detectable in his voice.

"Yes, Mr Worf?" The captain asked.

"The Romulan ship has opened fire." He stated.

Riker looked sceptical. "I don't see any..." Before he could even finish his already short sentence, he was cut short by a quick, yet substantial vibration that shook the Enterprise. "What was that?" He asked, even though he knew the answer.

"A photon torpedo." The Klingon replied.

"Number One," captain Picard began to talk, "what do you suggest we do?"

Riker shook his head. "I think we should fire back. They're not that advanced, they can't possibly do that much harm."

"This is the Romulans that we're talking about though." Deanna chimed in, in an attempt to be the voice of reason.

The captain replied to Deanna. "Yes, counsellor, but this ship is not at all that advanced. They may have well dragged it out of their scrap-heap." Then Picard, seeing the logic in what Riker had said, agreed. "Make it so, Mr Worf."

Obeying the captain's order, Worf instructed the ship's computer to direct a photon torpedo at the transport vessel. "The impact had a negligible effect, sir. Their shields are intact."

Jean-Luc Picard rubbed his chin. "Hmmm..." He then came to a decision. "Continue fire."

"Aye, sir." Worf obeyed his captain's orders.

Wanting to know what the state of the Romulans' state of defence was, Picard asked Worf.

"Romulan shields are down to seventy eight percent." Almost as soon as he had read out that particular statistic, another vibration shook the bridge, with this one being ore violent than the last. "Sir, our shields are now at seventy five percent." He stated.

"Fire again, lieutenant." He instructed the Klingon tactical officer.

Worf nodded and then proceeded to fire another photon torpedo at the Romulan vessel. "Their shields are now at sixty seven percent."

"Fire again." Picard instructed.

And so, obeying his captain's order, Worf carried out the action. "Their shields are now at forty nine percent."

Picard wondered whether it was the right thing to do, to fire at the Romulan transport ship another time. He was well aware of the trouble that the Romulans, themselves, had caused in the past, but Picard knew that the people on board this transport vessel would not have come from a military background, and that they would almost definitely be civilians.

The Enterprise jolted again, as the result from another attack from the enemy vessel."Shields are now at sixty nine percent, sir." Worf interjected.

Sub-lieutenant Jo'rek was quite different from the majority of other Romulans. He was reasonably shy and did not often like to voice his opinions to loudly. He was not a very confident person, and, in some ways, disapproved of the Romulan way of life. He knew he could be shot, very easily, for even allowing these thoughts to simply slip through his mind, but, nonetheless, this was the way he felt. He had never known his mother, as she had died when he was only small. It was to his understanding that this tragic occurrence when he was of such a very young age may be the reason why he feels the way he feels. All he knew was anger and revenge. This was because his father, S'harien was a very powerful man. S'harien was very much looked up to in Romulan society, and for his son to go against every single thing that makes one a Romulan would be seen as sacrilege and even, in some ways, blasphemy.

Although he did not know even what his mother looked like, he liked to think of her as beautiful and confident, not at all like himself. He knew her name, Jhu, meant 'angel' in Romulan and he always felt as though this was the perfect name for her. Jo'rek often felt as though he should be punished and cast away for these so called impudent beliefs that he had, but he did not care.

Sometimes, Jo'rek felt like he would have rather it had been his father that had died, and not his mother. He liked to think of her as caring and gentle, in contrast, he had very solid proof that his father was indeed the complete opposite; a tyrant. Jo'rek did not want to carry on his father's legacy of treating others in such a bad and immoral way, he wanted to think carefully, he wanted to be logical. He envied all the Vulcans for their logic and their health and their friendships. For the majority of alien races viewed Romulans to be ruthless and dangerous, and, although Jo'rek knew that that was true, he did not want to be a part of that.

Romulans are very similar to Vulcans, in terms of physiology, and so, their life expectancy is much the same too, which is well over one hundred and fifty years. Jo'rek was considered by most to be very young, at the age of only twenty three. And, although being young had its certain advantages, it also meant he had received a considerable amount of abuse fro some of the older, but not necessarily more sensible, officers. He had been holding the position of sub-lieutenant for only a short period of time, but his commander felt that he could easily be promoted accordingly. Jo'rek was now sure that he would be allowed to proceed to the Romulan equivalent of a lieutenant commander, a centurion. However, despite all of the positive attributes that Jo'rek possessed, he knew that he had to become more confident, but he wasn't entirely sure how to do it. He had to be careful with what he said, or he may be convicted of mutiny, which was a very serious offence in Romulan culture.

And, although Jo'rek had become used to being teased and mocked by many of the other officers whom he served with, and whom he was serving with now, he was liked by those at the military college where he had trained. From time to time, he missed his friends. In spite of the fact that he was always busy when on his usually eventful shifts, he always made time to contact his friends, probably because he didn't have that many. He was careful about who he accepted as he friends, as he was taught from a very early age by his father to do so. His closest friend was called Jaeih, and they had met whilst serving on a previous ship. But, she was assigned very quickly to another vessel, one which would operate many, many light-years away. This was done because officials had become aware of the growing bond between Jo'rek and Jaeih, and did not particularly like it. Although Romulans were certainly not near as stoic as their Vulcan cousins were, they had no need or respect for sentimentality.

Previously, Jo'rek had served as an Uhlan, the equivalent of an ensign, aboard one of the most advanced vessels in Romulan culture; belonging to the D'deridex class. Although he had been very excited to be promoted to the rank of sub-lieutenant after only a short amount of time, Jo'rek was still disappointed when he learnt that he would be serving on board a much less sophisticated vessel, a patrol ship. Nevertheless, he was grateful and simply could not refuse the enticing officer of moving up a rank. For, in Romulan society, military rank influences your social standing.

Then, Jo'rek saw his chance. The battle with the Federation ship, called the Enterprise, had only been raging for a few moments, but now their shields were critical. Jo'rek looked over at his commander, S'Ten, who was pacing up and down across the bridge of the ship, musing. "Sir?" Jo'rek coughed and then spoke up, as he advanced a few steps forward from his post.

Commander S'Ten stared at Jo'rek; there was anger in his, but there was also an element of fear. "Yes, sub-lieutenant?" He asked.

Jo'rek looked out of the vessel's view screen. "Sir, if I may?..." He began, but then almost lost his train of thought.

S'Ten, now looking even more anxious, walked up to Jo'rek. "Yes, what is it?" the impatience in his voice was very clear.

"I think we should withdraw." Jo'rek said simply, looking down at the dirty, grey floor of the transport ship.

The Romulan commander shot an enrage-filled look in the young officer's direction. "Withdraw?" We can't withdraw."

Once more, the vessel shook after being struck by yet another photon torpedo from the starship Enterprise and another officer, an experienced centurion named Maiek gave the commander a worried and foreboding look. "Sir, shields are now at fifty four percent."

"Sub-lieutenant," S'Ten looked at Jo'rek, "there is no need to withdraw. Reurn to your post." He demanded.

Another torpedo struck the Romulan vessel, which lead to the dramatic force of the impact ringing around the entire ship. "Shields are now at thirty nine percent." The centurion gave the warning.

"Sir." Jo'rek stood his ground. "We must withdraw, our shields are failing."

"No," the ship's commander said, "what of honour and revenge?" His voice was cold and harsh and Jo'rek could quite clearly see the tiny veins in S'Ten's forehead pulsing.

"Sir," Jo'rek glanced over at the main tactical display station and read out the statistics, "our shields are at twenty two percent. We must withdraw."

Despite the endless amounts of logic that were present in what Jo'rek had just said, the commander did not heed his words. "We must fight until the very end. Your grandparents, and their parents, and so forth, have died in battle, fighting for your future, do not discredit them now. We must continue."

So, seeing that it was very unlikely that the commander would actually see sense, Jo'rek obeyed him and walked back to his post.

Commander S'Ten settled back down into his chair and ordered the tactical officer. "Fire all photon torpedo. Target their weapons systems."

"Aye, sir." The centurion carried out the order, but it seemed to have little of no effect on the colossal Earth ship. "Their shields have decreased by three percent, sir."

The commander began to perspire and he drew his sleeve across his forehead, in the hop of catching any excess moisture. "Continue to fire." He ordered, adamantly.

After he had done so, the centurion looked back to his commander. "Sir, our shields are now at eleven percent."

Jo'rek could not stand the insanity any longer. "Sir!" He shouted. "We have to withdraw. We cannot in, their weaponry is far more advanced than ours. We have no chance of destroying them." As he said these words, he could not help but think of all of his friends back on his home planet, Romulus. He had not family, except for his father, and he did not care much for him and the feeling was more or less mutual.

"Hold your tongue!" The commander spat out the words. "Any more, and I'll have you for insubordination and mutiny."

"But, sir..." Jo'rek tried to speak again, but S'Ten cut him off.

"I have warned you, Jo'rek..."

"No," Jo'rek backed away from the commander, "I am relinquishing you of command." He said as bravely as he possibly could.

"I will not accept such impudence!" S'Ten snorted and walked over to the young officer, with his disrupter held tightly in his hand. Once he had reached the Jo'rek, he held it up to his head. "Think of al those Romulans dead because of the Federation." The commander said.

"Shields are now critical, at seven percent." The centurion added, the desperation evident in his voice.

"Sir, what about us?!" Jo'rek demanded. "We have only seconds left. We must withdraw!" He yelled, his eyes red with fury and terror.

S'Ten was adamant in his decision. He turned to the centurion, "Continue fire." And, as the order was being carried out, Jo'rek noticed that the S'Ten's attention was entirely focused on the conflict, so he saw his chance. He leapt out of his chair and managed to grapple the disrupter from his commanding officer and now held it against his head. The weapon was a type-three disrupter and was considered to be to cruel and dangerous for use by the Vulcans and Humans, but it was still very common with Romulans.

S'Ten looked around, shocked. "You could hurt someone with that." He mocked Jo'rek.

"You leave me no choice. I cannot let all of the people on board this ship die because of you. I... don't want to die." Jo'rek was not crying; he was strong. He knew that he had to stand up for himself and for the rest of the crew that may feel the same as him, although he knew that there wouldn't be many that would be willing to defy their commanding officer. And, for once in his life, he actually felt proud of himself.

"Shields at two percent!" The nervous and terrified voice of the centurion rang out all around the bridge of the vessel, leaving everyone afraid. He knew very well that their feebly equipped ship would be absolutely no match for the majestic behemoth that the starship Enterprise was.

"Sir, I am begging you!" Jo'rek cried. "Hail the Federation ship and tell them that we wish to withdraw!" He was using logic, much like his Vulcan cousins. He preferred logic to violence.

The commander was simply motionless where he was. Even as he saw the plethora of photon torpedoes being fired, by the Enterprise, to his own ship, S'Ten harboured no regrets. Nothing at all. Not even the slightest regret. As far as he was concerned, ignorance was bliss. He had done what he was meant to do and it was definitely not the Romulan way of life to negotiate with anyone, let alone their sworn enemies.

The next few moments were, for lack of a better word, a blur. Jo'rek remembered the shields being reported inoperative and he remembered a bright light flashing before his eyes. He glanced out of the window and saw that his ship was slowly burning away. Soon, the devastation would reach him and he would be no more. After no more than a few seconds, it was all over. Jo'rek saw his life flash before his eyes and suddenly, he felt proud. He had stood up against his commanding officer and if only he had had a few more moments, he may have been able to save the ship. However, he did not have a few more moments, his time was up.

The Enterprise, despite their best intentions of avoiding conflict and to initiate peaceful contact, had completely and utterly destroyed the Romulan patrol ship. They had no choice.


	17. Bad move

A/N: violence (ish, but not explicit.)

At last, Lore had figured out what he should say to Grace. He knew that he had to offer some sort of response to her question, he couldn't simply leave her in the dark. "There was something..." He said the first three words of his reply again, but, as before, he trailed off.

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to." Grace reminded him, although, she was very curious as to what the answer was.

Lore shook his head. "Grace, I have to tell you. I can't keep this up any longer."

She stood still, taken aback, her expression was full of worry. "What... What do you mean?" She stuttered. "What have you done?" Her voice grew louder.

Lore put his hands on her face, staring deep into her blue, sky-coloured eyes. "I love you, Grace. But..."

"But what?" She looked down, even though she did not want to.

"But... stay here."

"What? Why?" She began to grow worried, almost frantic. She was worried that it was her fault that he was acting the way he was.

"Don't worry."

"What?! I am worrying." Tears began to form in her eyes, like tiny icicles on a cold winter's day.

Lore took a deep breath, not that it made even the slightest difference to how he was feeling. "Please, just don't move. Stay there." He kissed her on the lips so softly that Grace could barely feel it. "I'll be back soon."

"But... Lore..." She took one, tiny, step forward, towards him, trying to catch his arm as he left her, but she could not reach.

Grace's voice began to fade as Lore walked away from her, and up to a large door. It was made of metal and its size was so huge that it was very close to being called ridiculous. Along the side of the door, there were multiple locks and a plethora of other security devices that were visible. Turning around briefly, he looked back at Grace, who was just stood motionless; a look of sadness plastered on her beautiful face. He could not look at her any longer, as he feared it would distract him. Instead, he turned his attention back to the enormous door and he bent down. It was very dark, so he had to use his sense of touch to locate the bolt that was near the floor. Once he had found it, he slid it across, resulting in a harsh, but quick sound. He felt compelled to look back at Grace once more, but he managed to stop himself from doing so. So, he stood up and slid the second bolt across, which was situated close to the middle of the door.

Lore sighed and mused for a short while. He had to find out, for sure, if Data was still locked up in the compound. He knew that he had somehow managed to establish successful contact with the Enterprise, but he did not know how. He realised that the future of his plan to locate and obtain the emotion chip was hanging in the balance. Data could have told captain Picard and indeed all of the crew about his troublesome brother, Lore did not want to let that go to chance. He cut his thinking short and continued to open the door. The final bolt was located at the top of the door, and it was almost seven feet up off the ground. Lore was only five foot eleven, so he had to stretch to reach it and the slide it across. Once he had done so, he then reached down, to around hip level, which was where a large lock was. Lore reached into one of his pockets and brought out a small key, which he then put into the keyhole and turned it. After hearing a quiet clicking sound, he pushed the door open and walked into the room that was on the other side, closing the door behind him, but he hadn't locked it.

The room which Lore had just walked into was the room that he had held his brother, Data, captive in. As he walked down the steps to the lower level, he flicked on a light switch which was high up on the wall, which only delivered a pathetic amount of light. His footsteps caused an eerie sound to echo throughout the compound.

"Data!" He shouted once he saw that his brother was no longer tied to the chair which he had been previously. "How?!..." He began to talk, but he was so consumed by blind anger and fury that he lost the ability to even speak.

Data walked over to his brother, with no expression on his face. He just simply made his way towards Lore and stood motionless, I front of him. "Lore, why have you come?" He asked, his voice plain and blunt, but quite obviously assertive.

Lore's face twisted into on of rage and aspects of anxiety. "You know why I'm here." His eyes narrowed and he frowned deeply.

"No, Lore, I do not." Data's voice was completely and utterly neutral. There was no detectable sense of anger or rage, but, then again, Data could not feel like that.

Lore took a few steps closer to his brother, so that they were not simply a few metres apart, but only a few inches. Data began to feel slightly uncomfortable, as he could feel Lore's synthetic, warm breath on his neck. "I know you've told Picard."

"Brother, I had to. I could not let you continue with you plan."

Lore swallowed, and then added in a tone of voice similar to yelling, but not quite as aggressive. "Why couldn't you just keep your mouth shut?"

"My duty is to the Enterprise, Lore. I had no choice but to do what I did."

Lore took a step back, holding his hands up to his head, sighing. "No, no, no." He shook his head slowly. "How did you get out of the chair?" He needed to know how.

"It was a simple process."

"Oh, do tell." Lore said sarcastically.

Data's head twitched slight, conveying his confusion. "It required basic mathematical and strategic calculations."

Lore burrowed his head in his hands, exhaling deeply and loudly. He was positive that the poly alloy tether was definitely more than adequate when it came to it being used as a sort of tie. That was the reason he had used it to bind Data to the chair. He had originally been proud of his scheme, but it seemed that it was all crumbling down around him.

"I estimate that captain Picard will dispatch an away team soon, and you will be found, Lore." data remarked bluntly.

Lore's temper instantly sky-rocketed, for Data had reminded him of the imminent danger that he, himself, would be in very soon. "I am superior, dear brother, no biological organism can overpower me." He spat out the words.

"You are very much mistaken, brother." Once again, Data's facial expression and tone of voice were completely neutral.

"Oh no, that is where you are wrong!" Lore raised his voice and walked over to his brother again, waggling an impetuous and dominant finger at him.

Data's expression slightly altered; it now seemed to display something akin to pity. "If I were you, Lore, I would not be so sure."

At that very moment, Lore felt like he could not contain his anger and frustration any longer. The anger was radiating from him like light does from the sun and it began to consume him. He could not vent out his frustration on anything; the only way he could do that was with Data. And so, as the anger began to quickly eat away at his judgements, he swung his right hand back, his fist clenched as tightly as his teeth and landed a hard blow square in his brother's jaw.

The hit caused Data to stumble backwards, and it took him a few moments to gather his thoughts, before he stood upright again. "Lore..." He began to advise his brother against any further attacks, but he was interrupted by another blow delivered by Lore. This time, it hit Data in the centre of his face, making the shock waves seem to ricochet around his body and he fell down to the floor. Moments later, he stood up, regaining his balance.

"Its no use. I am superior to you. There is no point in trying." Lore warned Data before swinging his arm back again, but, before it could make contact, Data extended his hand, holding onto his brother's arm firmly. "Lore. I advise you against..."

"Shut up!" Lore yelled, before using his other arm to deliver a single hard chopping action against Data's arm which which gripping onto his own. Data took a step backwards, lifting his hand up to his head, and feeling that a piece of circuitry was exposed.

Data knew that he had to fight back against Lore and defend himself. He gathered that the away team that he had estimated captain Picard should have dispatched probably won't be arriving any time soon, so he had no choice but attack his own brother. Lore threw another punch at him, but Data was prepared for it. He placed his arm around Lore's upper arm, twisting it. Yet, as Lore, like all other Soong-type androids, could not feel physical pain, Data's otherwise perfectly flawless defensive motion was overcome. However, all was not yet lost for Data, as he held his grip on his brother's arm steadfastly, completely destroying Lore's chances of escape.

The anger inside of Lore was still continuing to increase with every waking moment and he swung his right leg backwards, whilst still in Data's grip, and aimed squarely for his brother's leg. The blow hit Data precisely on the kneecap, which led him to bend down and examine his injuries. Of course, Data could not be injured in the traditional, usual sense, but, nonetheless, he could be damaged. Whilst not as easy to damage as the delicate body of a human being, Data knew very well that he was at risk. So, he did not stop long to inspect himself and check for any damage, no matter how minuscule they might seem. Instead, he promptly rose up again and walked over to Lore who had anger written all over his face.

Data had an ethical program, something which, although Lore did possess it malfunctioned, and that ethical program allowed Data to be capable of distinguishing the right from the wrong. And, regardless of the fact that Data could not judge situations and actions with a so called 'gut feeling', he knew what was the right thing to do. Under these particular circumstances, Data came to the conclusion that fighting his brother, so violently, was completely wrong. "Brother," Data began, slowly walking towards him. "I do not believe that this is the right course of action."

"Again!" Lore exclaimed, raising his hands up above his head, in some sort of sarcastic yet tired expression. "You're wrong!" He remarked to Data, and he shook his head. And so, following up from his words, echoing them in a sense, Lore walked over to Data and they now stood a little more than a couple of inches apart and he raised his hand again. However, before Lore could deliver yet another blow, Data blocked it and then ducked out of the way; they had now swapped sides.

"I do not wish to fight you, Lore, yet, you leave me no choice." Data said to his seemingly insane brother as he struck him in the jaw. Lore took a few steps back, somewhat dazed after the heavy blow he had just received. He held his hand up to his mouth, blinking. Much like human boxers do if they are struck in the face, Lore wiped his mouth. However, those particular boxers do that action to wipe away the blood that is most likely seeping out of their mouth or their nose. Lore, as an artificial life form, did not have blood, and nor did he need it. He did, however, much like lieutenant commander Data, have chemical nutrients that circulated around his body in a similar way to blood. After doing that action, Lore caught sight of the stain that the orange coloured nutrient fluid had left on the yellow sleeve of his stolen Starfleet uniform.

Now at the stage where his frustration had gotten to much, Lore threw himself on Data. As a result of the heavy, concentrated impact, Data fell down onto the cold, damp floor of the compound. He struggled to pick himself off of the floor, but Lore had pinned him down. Lore began to punch Data in the face continually for what seemed like a decade, but which was actually more like ten seconds. Finally, it became to much for Data and he felt that his positronic brain could not take any more beatings, so he gathered the strength to fight back again. He waited for the precise moment when Lore's fist was the right distance from his face and reached his own hand out, grasping onto his brother's arm as tightly as he was designed to be able to do. Lore had not anticipated the move, which lead him to become vulnerable. Data was very grateful for Lore's new-found level of vulnerability, as it certainly gave him the upper hand.

But, regardless of Data's excellent computational powers and his superhuman skills, he and Lore were, in essence, the same. And, Lore used this to his advantage. He, unlike Data, could combine rage and power to form his own sort of personal armada, against which Data was, for lack of a better word, defenceless. Lore managed to prise Data's hand off of his arm and continued to strike him, letting out a sharp cry of frustration and animosity.

On the other side of the door, Grace had been far too worried to listen in on what was happening not that far away. She was obviously curious, but her mind was simply too transfixed on other matters. Not only did she have to try and find some sort of way to finally get the truth from Lore, she also had to add to the paper which she had to write for her application of being promoted to the rank of lieutenant. However, despite all of these things that were on her mind, constantly bombarding her brain, the sound of Lore's angry yell was too loud to ignore and she knew at once that she had to know.

Intent on satisfying both her curiosity and her anxiety, Grace walked up to the ridiculously large metal door that Lore had walked through. To her surprise, it was not locked and she tentatively took a step closer to it, pushing the door open carefully. Although there was some degree light in the room, it was barely worth mentioning. As Grace stepped through the now clear doorway, she began to walk down the steps. However, she could only proceed a few paces before she could go no further; she was in shock. "Lore!" She cried at the top of her lungs. "What are you doing!?" She yelled at him, so loud that it could easily have had the ability of shattering a window. She stared in horror as she watched the man she loved attacking someone else. As she gathered the courage to take a few more steps forward, she saw that it was not just any random man who Lore was attacking, it was his brother, Data. She felt that she could just not simply let this act of violence carry on, and so she managed to reach the bottom of the hard, stone staircase and somewhat sauntered over to the middle of the room.

She could not believe what she was witnessing. "Lore!" She cried, the tears now cascading down her cheeks. "Please!" her tone of voice got louder and louder. "Please! Stop!"

Lore paused for a moment, suspending his attack. At the very moment he had heard Grace's voice he felt himself almost starting to lose control of his bodily functions. He harboured hatred for his brother, which he could gain no control of and, in all fairness, it was not his fault. He looked down and, for the first time since this fight began, he realised what what he was doing. Data did not look particularly injured, but Lore could see something in his eyes. They were now no longer the bright, amber hue which they used to be, they had somehow gotten more dull in colour. Data was not capable of emotions, thus he did not have the ability to experience happiness or sadness. Nonetheless, Lore felt a wave of guilt sweep over him. But, he raised another arm, aiming his fist straight for the centre of Data's face. In response to this impending attack, Data instantly put his hands on each of Lore's shoulders, attempting to push Lore off of him.

"Lore!" Grace yelled. "Please, stop! You're hurting him!" She knew the last thing that she said was not exactly true as Data was incapable of feeling pain, but she could clearly see what Lore was doing to him. "Please!" The last plea she made was almost inaudible because her throat felt stuck; it was as though she couldn't breathe properly. Her vision was becoming more and more clouded due to all of the tears that would not stop streaming from her eyes. She plead again with him, "Please..."

Lore could hear the level of distress in Grace's voice, but he could not stop. He had to kill Data. For, it was Data who Noonian Soong had chosen above him. If Dr Soong had never created Data, then Lore knew that there was some faint glimmer of hope that he could have been saved. Lore did not enjoy being the way he was in any way, shape or form, but he was what he was. And, now, it seemed to him that it could never be changed. That is, unless, he had possession of the emotion chip. Data had no need for it, but Lore did.

Grace realised that her pleas alone would not be enough, and so she resorted to logic; she wanted to remind Lore of who she really was. "Lore, just listen to me," she managed to garner the courage to talk to him whilst he and Data wrestled on the ground, "I know this isn't you. You were so sweet when I first met you." She sniffed and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "Everyone calls me naïve, but I couldn't care less about that. I saw something special in you. Please, just... listen..." Her voice trailed off into the darkness that consumed the compound. Seeing that Lore had still not ceased his attack, Grace walked over to him, gingerly. She knelt down beside Lore as he continued to strike Data, with each and every hit becoming less and less powerful. She put her hand on Lore's shoulder, and with a distraught look in her eye. "Lore. Please. I love you. Don't do this." She wiped her eyes again, which were read and stinging from the tears. At last, Lore turned away from Data and looked at her. He wanted desperately to say something, but he could not find the words.

When Lore turned his head to face her, Grace could see Data. She saw parts of his circuitry on display, around his forehead, near the hairline. The blinking lights and flashing circuits almost lit up the otherwise dark room, releasing some sort of sorry sensation into the atmosphere. Data looked as though he could not even say a word, he just simply lay there, the light in his eyes slowly fading. "Data?" She asked, her voice very soft sounding. The android's head twitched and Grace let out a sigh of relief when she knew he was more or less okay. "Data?" She asked again, just to be sure.

Data lifted his head up off of the floor. "Yes, ensign Fletcher?" He asked.

Grace knew it was inappropriate to ask what she was about to ask, as Data was her senior officer, but she said it any way. "Grace's fine."

Lore looked around the room, and then his gaze fell, once again, on Grace. "I..." he began to talk "...I... I'm sorry." He hastily stood up and walked over to the other end of the room, not facing Grace and Data, who were still sat in the dark.

"Data, are you all right?" Grace asked him as she shuffled closer.

Data got himself up into a seated position, so he was at the same level as her, and he nodded in response to her question. "Ensign... Grace, you seem concerned."

Grace broke down. It was all becoming too much for her. She wasn't even twenty five, and, yet, all of this had happened. She had fallen in love with an android, and then she had found him trying to kill his own brother. "I'm sorry." She said simply.

Data was unsure of what she meant. "There is no need for you to apologize."

Grace's vision was becoming more and more blurred and she could hardly see a thing. "Yes, there is."

"But, it is my brother's fault."

"I know that," she sniffed, wiping her nose, "but, I feel responsible too. You're my commanding officer, and I've let you down." No longer feeling worried for her own well-being, she took along, hard, focused look at Data. "He's hurt you so badly." She pointed out, not caring in the slightest that she had just stated the obvious. Data reached up and felt the flap of synthetic skin that was dangling above his left eyebrow, and tried to press it back into place, but he couldn't and it slipped down again. Grace sighed and managed to clear her vision, to some extent.

Lore knew he could not just simply let Data go. He needed revenge. Data had always been the favourite. Lore didn't view himself as being imperfect, he viewed himself as superior, and Data had to die. There was no other way. He reached into his pocket and drew out a small hand phaser. Despite its small size, however, it was very capable of killing even the toughest man and completely destroying an android's positronic net. He turned around, and began to advance towards Data. He held the phaser in front of himself, aiming for Data's head. He had to finish this, once and for all.


	18. Rescue?

A/N: there's a little violence, like before.

Grace looked up in horror to see Lore standing above them, with the phaser aimed exactly at Data's head; it was at point blanc range, and Lore could not miss. "Lore!" Grace shrieked at the top of her voice; so loudly that he throat began to ache. "No!" She yelled at him, tasting the salty tears as the ran past her lips. "Please, no!" She continued to scream at him.

Lore could not listen to her though, and the phaser remained held firmly at Data's head. Grace's mouth was open in an everlasting gape, as she was too terrified and too shocked to close it. She watched in fear as Lore took another few steps forward and she saw that the phaser was no only less than half a metre away from Data. "Please!" Her voice became more and more desperate. "No!"

It was at that very moment that Lore happened, by chance, to glance to the left and he caught sight of a bright blue shimmering light appearing in the room. It was no ordinary light, it was a transporter beam. To be more precise, one owned by Starfleet. All he could do was simply stare in horror as the azure blur began to appear more and more like people, until it had done so completely.

The transporter beam had finally finished rearranging the many atoms of the people inside it and now the blue-white glow had completely disappeared. There now stood four people; Starfleet officers, to put it more accurately. Starfleet was a peaceful organisation, with no intention of killing or injuring others, that is, unless they pose a threat. These circumstances were certainly those which demonstrated a threat. Commander Riker was leading the away team, as ordered by captain Picard, and there were three other officers accompanying him. They consisted of ensign Leonard, ensign Riley and lieutenant Johnson, who had been appointed send in command of the away team.

Commander William Riker ordered the three inferior Starfleet officers to take up defensive positions around the dark, eerie compound. "Set your phasers on stun." He said to them as they each took up their allocated positions. Riker took a step forward. It was a very dark room, and so the light was very limited. He could, however, still make out three almost ghostly figures towards the far side of the room. He took another step forward and saw that one of the figures was standing up, whilst the other two were sat down on the cold, hard floor. "This is commander Riker," he spoke tentatively, as he advanced towards them further, "identify yourself."

Riker got no audible reply, there was only the faint sound of something like whimpering. It sounded like despair and guilt. "We have a medical team on stand by," Riker continued, "if you are in need of any assistance."

Cowering in the pitch black corner, Grace Fletcher began to cry. She could not allow herself to contain her tears. The moment was too important, and the tension was definitely too great. She could not control herself any more. "Please!" She yelled, not to commander Riker, but to Lore. She was begging him to withdraw the phaser. "Please, Lore, don't do this!" She lowered her tone, but, nevertheless, it was still loud.

Riker looked over at one of his officers and then nodded in the direction of where the sound of Grace's voice was coming from. He had instructed ensign Riley to advance, very carefully, towards the location. Ensign Riley acknowledged his commanding officer's order with a brief, but distinguishable nod and then gingerly walked over. At last, he had found Grace, on the floor, in tears. He face was red and there were tears streaming down from her bright blue eyes. "Are you all right?" Riley asked, the caution detectable in his voice.

Grace shook her head in response to the other officer's question, and then looked up at Lore, who's hand was still grasped firmly around the phaser. The light was much better and more effective from where Grace was, as she was only a few metres away from Lore, so Riley could see what was happening very clearly. "Help him." Grace said quietly, and Riley looked over to where Grace's attention was fixed. He nodded and then proceeded towards the two androids. "This is ensign Riley," he began once he had reached them, "I order you to put down your weapon, immediately." His voice was surprisingly calm and reserved.

Commander Riker stepped forward, wanting to get a better look about what was happening, as he was only able to see very little from where he was. He could finally see Grace, and walked over to her. Kneeling beside her, he got out his tricorder and waved it over her. "You'll be fine." He said simply.

"I don't care about me." Grace replied, with little emotion in her voice. "Its my fault that all this has happened." She knew that what she had just said to the commander was not true, but she did not know who else she could blame. She just had to blame someone.

Riker frowned and continued to study his tricorder. Satisfied that she was going to be all right, and had no major injuries, he walked over to where ensign Riley was. "I order you to put down your weapon!" William Riker spoke the command loudly. He was not quite at the point of shouting, but the urgency in his voice was clear.

Once again, Lore did not answer, instead, he just stayed focused on what he was doing. "I'm sorry, brother." He said simply, his voice almost inaudible.

Data looked up, above his head, and saw that the phaser was still firmly planted next to his head. "Lore, if you are attempting to scare me, then..."

Lore laughed and shook his head. "No, brother, I'm not."

"If you do kill me, then perhaps that will give me closure. I have long thought of how long I will live and whether or not I am immortal. Death will make me more human."

Lore did not listen to what Data had just said, but, still, he could not bring himself to fire the phaser. He knew it would be simply and over quick enough. All he had to do was simply move his finger slightly, and the phaser would fire. It was set on full power, so Data's death would be almost instantaneous. However, Lore could not do it.

Grace Fletcher stood up and walked over to where Lore and Data where. She felt commander Riker's hand on her shoulder; he was trying to warn her to stay back, but she ignored him. She took small steps and reached Lore. She tried to stand in front of him, in an attempt to distract him. "Lore," she began to speak, very quietly, "please, just think for a moment. Think of what you're doing."

Lore heard what she had said very clearly, but, nonetheless, he did not put the phaser down.

Seeing that he was not responsive, Grace continued. "Data is you brother. I know you may hate him, for all that he's done, but you have to try and overcome that hatred." She shuffled her position slightly, and placed her hand on his arm, which was holding the phaser. The sight was almost pathetic, Data was simply sat there, on the floor, his legs stretched out in front of him. He looked almost like a rag doll.

"You don't understand," Lore replied to her, not even looking her in the eye, for his gaze was permanently transfixed on Data. "I am superior to him."

"If you're superior, then surely you know what's right and wrong. You must know that what you're about to do is wrong. Please, Lore, don't do it."

Lore shook his head and held the phaser steady. "I have to. He has to die."

"No," Grace looked into his eyes, "I know you won't. You may have been malevolent, but that was in the past. You've changed, and I know you know that. Put the phaser down." She fought to hold back the tears.

Lore suddenly became overcome with emotions. He wasn't entirely sure of what some of the feelings were. He could feel anger and guilt, which were the emotions he was able to identify. But, there was also another emotion, one which he wasn't quite sure the name of. He had felt similar in the past, but not quite like this. Then, he realised what it was. It was terror. He was afraid. He had never been scared before, because, in his honest opinion, he had nothing to be scared of. But, now, he was terrified of killing Data, and, what was worse, he didn't quite understand why. He had been responsible for bringing about the deaths of so many, whether they had deserved it or not. Klingon, Romulan, Cardassian, Borg, he had killed at least one member of each species. But, this time it was different. It was not just anyone who's head was at the other end of the firearm, it was his brother, and Grace was right, he did care for him.

However, despite all of these emotions that were gradually building up inside of him, Lore could not bring himself to lower the weapon. He had to do it. All he had done had been leading up to this moment. He had to show everyone that he was superior. If Data was not committed to joining his cause, then Lore would have to go it alone.

"Lore," Grace began, gingerly, "please..." She lifted her hand off of his arm and wiped her eyes. She could only imagine what a state she looked like. Her hair, as she always had it loose, was untidy and her eyes were stinging. She didn't have a lot of make-up on, so it wouldn't stain her face because of all the tears, but her eyes did still look quite red.

Lore looked up, and his attention drifted away from the phaser. "Grace, I... I have to..." He said softly. He was beginning to become unsure of whether his positronic matrix would be able to cope with the increasing plethora of emotions that he was burdened with. He reached out his hand and wiped her eyes. He didn't really have an expression on his face, so to speak, or rather, it was awash with a mixture of emotions. He looked shocked and scared, worried and lonely. He was confused.

Riker saw his chance and stepped in. He extended his hand and quickly, and expertly, took the phaser from Lore's hand. He then decreased it from maximum power to a lower, non-fatal, setting and passed it to ensign Riley. Riker stood where he was, awaiting Lore's response to what he had just done.

However, Lore had been to subdued by the abundance of emotions inside of him that he barely noticed the fact that the phaser had been taken from him.

"Lore," Riker spoke assertively in a low voice, "Let her go." He ordered.

"No." Grace resisted, as she put her arm on Lore's.

Riker frowned, his expression became one of warning. "Ensign." He spoke more firmly this time. "He is dangerous. We must escort him to the brig immediately."

"Please, commander, can he have a few moments?" She asked, the desperation visible in her eyes.

Riker considered what she had asked for a few moments, then nodded, very slowly.

"Grace... I..." Lore began, but he couldn't get the words to leave his mouth.

"Shh..." She interrupted him, speaking softly.

"I'm sorry." He added in a remorseful tone.

"Ensign," Riker spoke again, "we must escort him back to the brig."

"Wait." She shot back at him, despite knowing the consequences of insubordination. She then turned her attention back to Lore. "Don't worry." She tried to calm him.

At that moment, Data stood up and backed away, so her was standing next to commander Riker.

"I don't want to go to the brig." Lore said.

Grace placed her hands on either sides of Lore's face, cradling his head. She rested her head on his shoulders, bringing him into an embrace. "Everything will be all right." She stroked Lore's hair as his head rested on her shoulders and pulled him towards her. "Do you remember that song I was talking about?" She asked.

Lore lifted his head up. "Yes." He replied simply.

She sang the first few lines. "When no-one else can understand me, when everything I do is wrong, you give me hope and consolation, you give me strength to carry on." Her voice was sweet and there was not a word sang out of tune. She had never had any professional training, but she was part of the Enterprise's choir.

"Yes?" Lore was unsure of what Grace's point was.

"Think of it." She tenderly kissed his lips and then pulled herself away from the embrace.

Riker took a step forward and put his arm on Lore, forcing him to let Grace go. But, just as Riker's hand touched him, Lore broke away and planted his lips firmly on Grace's. As he did so, he looked straight into her eyes. Grace, once more, hugged him and kissed him on the cheek. Grace felt safe and did not want the moment to end, but she knew it must.

They were interrupted by commander Riker, who pulled Lore away. Riker found that, surprisingly, Lore was not resisting it.

Riker signalled for lieutenant Johnson to transport to the transporter room, along with ensigns Riley and Leonard, with Data and Grace with them.

Once he had separated Lore from Grace and given his orders to the other officers, Riker pressed his combadge, making it chirp. "Riker to Enterprise, two to beam directly to the brig."

As soon as he had given the command, their bodies began to sparkle and their atoms had rearranged, they appeared on deck five, which was were the interrogation and detention facilities were located. Once they had transported back to the ship, Riker ordered the force field on the detention cell to be initiated and increased to a higher power, as soon as Lore was inside it.


	19. Inquisition

"So," Jean-Luc Picard said, his voice low and assertive as he paced up and down the detention room slowly, "you were the one impersonating Mr. Data?" What he said was more of a statement, as a pose to a question, which is what it sounded like.

Lore did not respond. He didn't say anything, nor did he make any sort of gesture or movement which could represent some form of a reply. He just simply sat there, on the hard bed of the detention cell. His vision was transfixed on the floor; he wasn't quite sure why, but he felt as though they grey floor of the cell would give him considerably more comfort than looking into Picard's grey eyes.

Picard rubbed his chin, and finally stopped pacing. "What did you hope to gain?" He asked the question not only for the sake of regulation issues but to satisfy his own curiosity as well.

Again, Lore remained still and he did not show even the faintest hint of responding. He did, however, look up from the floor and his amber eyes met the captain's.

"Lore," Picard began, a stern expression on his face, "I am not asking you, I am telling you."

Lore's facial expression changed and he furrowed his brows. "I'm not afraid of you, Picard." He glared at him.

"That was never my intention." He replied simply. "All I demand of you is what your intentions were."

Lore shook his head. "And, why should I tell you?"

Picard took a step forward and frowned. "Because you will be in this cell for the rest of your life, which will indeed be a very long time, unless you answer."

Laughing, Lore stood up and walked away from the bed, so that he and Picard were now level and standing face to face.

"By all means, laugh." Picard warned him, then his expression grew more serious. "Why are you here, Lore? What is it you want?"

Lore backed away and wandered around the tiny cell for a short moment. "You know what I want, Picard." He narrowed his eyes.

Picard shook his head in annoyance. "No, I do not. The longer it takes you to tell me, the longer you'll have to stay here."

Lore listened to what the captain had said and considered it. He had no real desire to remain in this cramped cell. He felt lonely and he needed someone to talk to. He hated feeling like a prisoner, it was as though Picard and the rest of the crew felt as though they were better than he was. Lore was determined to prove them wrong. "All right, Picard," Lore sighed, "I'll tell you."

Leaning forward, Picard began to listen intently.

"I want that emotion chip."

"Lore, there is no emotion chip."

"I'm sure Data does." Lore smirked.

Picard frowned, confused by Lore's previous statement. "Data does not have an emotion chip. He doesn't have emotions."

"Oh, he hasn't told you." Lore laughed.

"You must be mistaken. There is no emotion chip." Picard replied firmly.

"Data has an emotion chip, but he's just not telling you." Lore's face twisted into an expression of humour and sarcasm.

Picard mused for a moment, then came to a decision. He pressed his combadge and waited for it to chirp. "Picard to Data." He began.

The android officer's voice boomed out of the combadge. "Data here, sir."

"Report to the brig immediately.."

Data acknowledged the request. "Understood."

A few minutes later, lieutenant commander Data arrived at the brig, on deck five. The journey hadn't take all that long, as the bridge, which is were he had been originally, was on deck one, so he did not have far to travel. "Yes, sir?" He asked once he had entered the brig.

Picard turned around and gestured for Data to come forward, which he did, accordingly. "Ah, Mr Data," he began, "I need to ask you a few questions concerning your rather troublesome brother."

Data nodded.

"Well," Picard began, putting emphasis on the word 'claims', "he claims that you know something about an emotion chip."

Data twitched. "Sir, Lore is correct."

"What?"

"I do have information regarding an emotion chip, and," Data paused, "I fear I have been concealing that information from you."

Picard looked stunned. "Data, are you saying that you've been helping Lore?"

Data shook his head. "No, sir, I have not."

"Well, what about this emotion chip, then?"

"I have, for some time, been developing a chip, which I would then be able to incorporate into my positronic matrix. That chip would give me the ability of maintaining simple emotions."

"I see. And, this is the thing that Lore is trying to get?"

"To my knowledge, yes."

Picard and Data's brief discussion was interrupted by the other Soong-type android, who was still hovering in the detention cell. In an annoyed voice, he asked. "What are you going to do with me?"

"You will be dealt with accordingly." Picard replied. "However, for now, you'll be staying here." He then walked out of the brig and continued to proceed towards the bridge, to resume his usual duties as captain.

Once his captain had left the room, Data walked over to his brother. "Lore, you must know, the emotion chip I have created will not work in your brain."

"You're lying!" Lore spat.

"No, Lore, I have only designed the chip to work in my Type-R positronic brain. It will not be able to function in a Type-L brain, such as yours."

Lore shook his head. His expression of humour began to change into something different, he was serious. "Brother," he asked, just as Data was about to leave the brig, "what will happen to me?"

"I do not know." Data replied simply, before exiting the brig.

On the way out from the brig, Data collided with someone. It wasn't just anyone, it was Grace Fletcher. Her expression was worried and anxious and Data felt that the right thing to do would be to ask her how she was, and so he did. Firstly, he stood up and then helped to lift her to her feet. "Ensign, are you all right, after the earlier events?"

Grace shook her head. "No, Data, I'm not all right. I want to see Lore."

Data ignored her last sentence and asked another question. "I would have expected you to report to sickbay."

"I've just come back from there. Dr Crusher says I'm fine."

Data nodded and began to walk off, when he felt Grace's hand on his arm. "Please," he could see the despair in her eyes, "can I see him?" She asked.

"I do not think that would be appropriate." He confessed.

"Please, Data. I'm asking you as a friend."

Data considered it for a moment. "So, as you 'looked after' me when I was being held captive, now it is customary for me to offer you help?" He asked. Even after so long serving and working with so many humans, Data still didn't quite grasp the concept of social niceties.

Grace tried to smile. "I guess so." She studied his expression hard, but it gave little away. "So, will you let me see him?"

Data nodded, before answering."He is in the brig." He then walked off and Grace made her way to the brig, which was very close by.

"Excuse me," a loud, gruff voice belonging to a security officer began to talk as Grace entered the brig, "do you have permission to be here?"

"Yes, Data...I mean, Mr Data said I could."

"Hmm..."

"It won't take long." She promised.

At last, the security officer gave in. "All right then." He stepped aside and allowed her access the room.

Lore's face lit up when he saw her enter the room. He walked forward, and reached his hand out but

was forced to retract it as he ended up touching the strong forcefield in which he was contained. "Grace!" He exclaimed.

"Its all right," she reassured him, "I'm here."

"What... what do you think will happen to me?"

She looked glum. "I honestly don't know."

"I... I..."

"What is it? What's wrong?"

"I... I don't want to die." He said. His eyes began to feel wet, and he wasn't quite sure why. Then, he realised what was happening. He was crying. Not a lot, but, nonetheless, he was crying. He had never cried before, in all of his life, expect for now.

"You won't." She replied softly, trying to calm him down.

Lore couldn't control himself and he lashed out. He was thankful for the forcefield, or else he might have take it out on Grace, but, instead, he reacted by kicking one of the walls of the cell.

Hearing the loud noise of the impact, the security guard began to advance towards them, but returned back to his original position once Grace had spoke. "Don't worry," she said, quietly, "he's just stressed."

"Lore, calm down." She said, assertively and sternly.

He sat down on the bed, but Grace called him back and he got up and walked back towards her.

"Listen," she said, "nothing bad is going to happen. I promise." She walked over to the security guard, who bore a confused and annoyed look on his face. "Can you lower the force field?" She asked.

He shook his head. "No, not without the captain's permission."

"Well, I doubt he'll agree." She muttered under her breath, before walking back over to Lore.

"Grace," Lore began, his voice very quiet, "I love you."

She smiled. "I love you, too."


	20. Questions and answers

"Number One?" Jean-Luc Picard began to talk as he and his first officer made their way, slowly, towards the main conference room.

Riker acknowledged the captain. "Yes, sir?"

"Do you think this it the right thing to do?" He asked, his tone of voice clearly denoted confusion.

"You mean, about Lore?" Riker asked for a specification on what Picard had just said, as it had been rather vague.

Picard nodded, frowning ever so slightly. "Yes."

"I honestly don't know, but, you're the captain."

Again, Picard simply nodded to show his agreement and he pressed the panel outside of the main conference room and the door automatically slid open, as soon as the ship's computer had realised who was at the door, causing a quiet hissing sound to escape.

Once the door had slid open, which it did rather quickly, Picard took his place at the top end of the table, and pulled his chair in, towards the long, oval shaped table. After he had sat down, Riker sat down too, sitting perpendicular to the captain, at his right. Less than a minute after he and Jean-Luc Picard had sat down, a chime type noise, signifying the fact that someone wanted to enter the room, was heard, and Picard acknowledged the sound. "Come."

As the door slid open, counsellor Deanna Troi and lieutenant commander Data became visible to Riker and Picard. Deanna and Data sat down at the table, which Deanna seating herself next to William Riker and Data opposite him.

"I presume you all know why I have called you here." Captain Picard began, his voice sounded stern and assertive. Seeing that they had all nodded, except for Data, who just simply twitched ever so slightly but Picard knew that he understood. Picard sighed and placed his hands on the table, in a sort of stretching position. "I need to now what your individual viewpoints are about this business with Lore." He said.

Deann Troi raised a quizzical eyebrow. "Do you mean whether or not it is right to reactivate him?"

The captain nodded. "What do you think, counsellor?"

"Well," Deanna began, "I don't think it is right to deactivate him." She said simply.

Riker frowned in response to what the ship's counsellor had just said. "Even after everything he's done?" He asked, partly astounded.

Deanna considered what Riker had just said for she knew of all the crimes that Lore had committed, but that was in the past. "I think so, yes." She decided.

"Why?" Picard stepped in.

"As I'm sure you all know, I've become close friends with Grace... ensign Fletcher, that is."

Picard and Riker nodded.

Deanna continued her speech. "She has told me a lot of things about Lore, and I do really feel as though he has changed."

"Changed?" Riker jolted backwards, getting even more confused. "He attacked lieutenant Summers!"

"That was in self defence." She replied simply.

"Well," Riker continued, "all you need to do is just look at Data. Can't you see what Lore has done to him?"

Deanna lifted her head up and shifted her gaze so that it was now fully directed on Data. And, as much as she did not want to, she still ended up looking at the top of his head. For, near to his hairline, just above his eyebrow, a patch of his skin was missing and underneath, Deanna could clearly see the blinking lights and circuits of Data's positronic matrix, which was now exposed. Geordi La Forge, one of the best engineers, and also Data's best friend, had said that it would take them a couple more days to try and replicate the material used as Data's synthetic skin precisely. It made Deanna feel sad, seeing Data like this, she knew that he was probably the last person who deserved to be treated this way. Nevertheless, she didn't really want to believe that Lore was responsible for this. "I'm sure he had a good reason." She replied.

Data then chimed in. "That is true, counsellor." He added. "However, my actions should not have constituted enough provocation for Lore to do what he has done."

"Look, Data," Deanna said, placing her hand on his, "I'm not blaming you, or your brother, but I just don't think deactivating him is the right thing to do."

"But, counsellor, Lore is a dangerous individual." Said Data, bluntly.

"I don't mean 'right' as in correct, I mean morally."

"Lore has no morals." Riker interjected.

"No," she shook her head, "I believe he does."

Picard rubbed his chin, thinking. "I know what Lore has done cannot be forgiven, but I need to know, for sure, what to do with him. We can't just simply leave him somewhere."

"That's true," Deanna realised, "but, I still don't believe that 'killing' him is right."

"That statement is not necessarily true, counsellor," Data added, correcting her, "deactivating Lore will not 'kill' him, as it is always possible to reactivate him again."

She nodded, taking what Data had said into account, but she still could not change her mind. "Data?" She began.

"Yes, counsellor?"

"May I ask you a personal question?"

"Of course."

"Have you ever been in love?" She was almost one hundred percent sure that she knew what the answer was going to be, but she asked the question anyway.

Data twitched slightly, as he found the topic slightly uncomfortable, as he had always considered himself to be a private individual. However, he promptly replied, and his response was what Deanna had expected. "No, I am not capable of feeling love."

"That may be," she began, "but, it seems, your brother can."

"Counsellor?" Picard asked, becoming slightly alarmed, as to where exactly this conversation was headed.

However, Deanna waved off his concern and continued to speak. "What I mean is, Lore can feel love... and he is loved.

Data raised and eyebrow.

"Grace." She said simply. "If you've seen them together, then you'll know there is something special there. Love is a powerful thing, Data."

He nodded. "Hmmm..."

"That's all very well and good, counsellor, but we must address the matter at hand." Picard said, in an attempt to put the meeting back on the right track.

"I know, captain, but I think Data needs to understand. We have to remember that Data evolves, don't you?" She turned her attention to the android opposite.

"Yes, to some degree. I am indeed capable of adapting to my surroundings, and am aware of such changes and alteration."

Deanna carried on talking. "And so, Lore does too. However, when once he used to be malevolent, now he is not, and I think his relationship with Grace has proved that."

Captain Picard found what Deanna had said to be very convincing and, in some ways, enlightening. "I know, counsellor, and I do agree, in some ways, with what you have said. However, Lore still poses a threat, and it is our responsibility to ensure that that threat is eradicated." He reminded her.

"I understand." She concluded. "But, I still think Lore should be given a chance."

Riker interrupted. "But, what about all those deaths that he has caused. All of those people slaughtered simply because he believed himself to be superior. It was like the return of the Nazis."

"Sir?" Data chimed in. "Are you comparing my brother to the fascist movement of the Hitler-led country Germany during the mid twentieth century of Earth?"

"Uh, yes." Riker responded. "Sorry."

"There was no need for you to apologise, commander, I do, however, accept your apology."

Data leant forward, towards the table, slightly. "Sir?" He looked at captain Picard.

"Yes, Data?" He asked.

"May I offer my opinion?"

The captain nodded. "Why, of course."

And, so, Data said what he felt he needed to say. "I do, counsellor," he looked at her, "think that your point is valid, however," he turned his attention back to the captain, consider commander Riker's opinion to be the most favourable over all."

"I see." Picard replied, before adding, "I'm afraid, my opinion must come into this. I, too, think Number One's is the best option."

Deanna looked visibly downcast, as she heard this, and she knew that she had, for lack of a better word, let Grace down.

Ignoring the counsellor's expression, the captain gave his verdict. "So, we are all decided?" And, hearing this, the three officers around the table, including the reluctant Deanna Troi, nodded in agreement. "Lore has to be deactivated."

Once Deanna and Riker had left the room, Picard called for Data to come back, and Data did. He sat back down in the chair in which he had been sitting previously. "Sir?" He asked, confused as to why the captain had asked him to stay behind.

"Do you know how to deactivate Lore?" Picard asked him.

Data nodded. "I presume that the process of deactivating Lore is very similar, or indeed the same, to the deactivation of myself. So, using that knowledge, I should be able to deactivate him."

"Would it cause you..." Picard paused for a moment, searching his mind for the right word to say "... discomfort?"

"To deactivate Lore?" Data asked his captain for a clarification on what he had just said.

Picard nodded. "Yes."

"No, I believe that the safety of everyone in the Federation, and its future is too important to risk."

"Well, its sorted then." Picard concluded, before showing lieutenant commander Data the way out, and they both left for the bridge.

Sarah Saunders studied her friend with a steadfast glare. It had been silent for a long time, perhaps half an hour or so, and, feeling slightly uncomfortable, Sarah decided to finally break thee silence. "Uh, Grace?" She said.

Grace Fletcher looked up and took a sip of her synthetic wine. She knew that it was only synthahol, so, although it definitely had the taste of real alcohol, it did not come with the unfortunate effects of being drunk. Usually, Grace would have been grateful for this attribute, but, now, she was not so appreciative. She was worried about Lore, and what might happen to him. Captain Picard, and indeed the rest of the ship believed he was pure evil, but Grace knew that they were wrong. Grace replied to her friend, even though she wasn't entirely sure that she would like what she was going to say. "Yeah, what is it?"

"Are you all right?" Sarah asked bluntly.

Grace sighed and shook her head, albeit discreetly. "How do you mean?"

"Well, about Lore..." Sarah began to talk, before stopping herself.

"What about him? Oh my god, has something happened? What's wrong?" Grace started to grow frantic.

Sarah tried to smile, but it was a feeble attempt. "Don't you know?" She asked.

"Know what?" She grew concerned and her face was overshadowed with worry and dread.

"I don't think I should tell, you, I mean, I guess I don't really have the authority to." She said.

Grace, however, was determined to know exactly what it was the Sarah had to say. "Sarah, please, what is it?" She pressed her.

"All right," she decided, "I'll tell you." They were lucky they had begun this conversation in their quarters, so they could be absolutely sure that Andy Summers couldn't hear. "Well..." she stopped briefly before carrying on, "they're going to deactivate Lore."

"W... What?" Grace felt her eyes fill with tears and she slumped in her chair, staring at her friend. "When?" She struggled to ask. Grace hadn't known about this, and so, obviously, she was completely in shock. "How do you know?" Grace asked, confused.

Sarah reached her hand out and placed it on top of Grace's, to reassure her. "I've heard a few officers talking about it in engineering, but don't worry, I'm sure nothing has happened, yet."

"Sarah, what if... he's gone? I'm never going to see him again!" She bawled, as she pushed back her chair, making it slam to the ground and she stood up. She leant over and picked up her glass of synthesized red wine, before she gulped the remainder of it down in one smooth movement.

Sarah looked alarmed. "Grace, where are you going?" She asked, raising her voice in a vain attempt to try and assert some sort of dominance over her upset friend.

But, before she could reply, Grace had stormed out.

Jean-Luc Picard had just sat down in the captain's chair, in the centre of the bridge, when he could have sworn that he had heard the doors of the turbolift slide open, making a hissing noise. Not very many people would have been able to detected such a small discrepancy in the usual sounds of the bridge, but Picard did, thanks to his many years of training and sharp hearing. And, in addition, the turbolift doors at the bridge of any starship, not just the Enterprise, would be opening and closing all the time, however, Picard was curious.

Alarmed by the sudden, but somewhat expected noise, Picard turned his head, and he certainly did not like what he saw. He saw a person, a woman. It was ensign Fletcher. Her hair was in a rather untidy state and her make-up was running. She looked quite a sight. Before Picard could even have had the slightest chance of standing up from his chair and asking Grace why she was on the bridge, she stormed over to him. "Why?!" She demanded, her eyes narrowed and her mouth trembling as she tried to withstand the tears.

Picard tried to calm her down, but was not very successful. "Ensign, you do not have bridge clearance." he stated bluntly.

"I don't care." She whimpered as she wiped her eyes, but they seemed to be still permanently stinging.

Picard stood his ground. He did not want this whole unfortunate scenario to be unfolding on his bridge, so he tried to prevent anything more from happening. "Ensign..."

"Please, sir," Grace sniffed, "can I talk to you?" She tried to control herself.

Picard sighed. "Why?"

"Its about Lore."

The captain obviously did not feel particularly comfortable with this matter, so he directed it to someone else. After all, he was the captain and it was his choice, and her had other duties to perform. "Mr Data," he began, "can you take this young lady somewhere quieter?" He asked.

Grace scowled at the captain, as choosing Data to try and 'look after' her was not a very considerate choice. Data and Lore looked identical, and seeing him would only make Grace even more unlikely to be able to forget.

Data, obeying the captain's command, stood up and his place on the bridge was promptly taken by someone else. He turned around to face Grace and walked over to the turbolift, where she felt forced to follow. Inside the turbolift was, for lack of a better word, awkward. Grace had been simplly stood in the corner, snivelling, and Data had made numerous attempts to try and make her feel better. So, they were both thankful for the fact that the turbolift journey did not last all that long.

Data stepped out of the turbolift first and then Grace followed, as she felt obliged to do so. Data talked. "Ensign, is there something you wish to discuss?"

She nodded, slowly and glumly. "I don't understand, Data, you're brother's going to die... and you're helping to do it!"

Data cocked his head to the left slightly. "It is not... death." He responded simply.

"Who cares what you call it?" She said, her voice becoming gradually louder. "He's your brother!"

Data pressed the panel outside of his quarters and the door slid open. He pulled up a chair and sat down. Grace did the same. She placed her chair opposite him, not exactly next to him as she didn't really want to be to close. Data continued to talk. "I am still... confused." He confessed.

"Data, there is nothing more to understand! I know Lore loved you, and in your own way, you loved him too. Don't you feel anything about this? Nothing at all?"

"I cannot feel, I feel nothing."

Grace sighed.

"Lore is a danger to the Federation, and I must help eradicate that risk, whatever the outcome is." He said.

"But, he's your brother, Data. Surely you can't do that to your own brother!"

"I have to. I have no other choice."

"Look," Grace leant forward, "I know he's done wrong in the past, and I saw what he did to you, but he doesn't deserve this. He's changed."

"I..." Data began to talk, but Grace cut him off. "Please, I'm begging you, Data, don't do this."

Data looked across at her, and, although he did not know a great deal about human emotions, he could tell when someone was upset. And, Grace was not upset, she was distraught; a mixture of sadness, worry and disrepair. It was times like this that Data felt thankful for the fact that he wasn't burdened with these sorts of negative emotions. "I cannot."

"Data, please. If you won't do it for Lore, then do it for me. Lore loves you, he may not show it, but I know he does, and I know you do too."

Data considered what Grace had said and had found her argument to be very compelling, he knew what he was going to do.


	21. The harm is done

"Mr Data?" Captain Picard spoke, loudly and briskly, as Data was about to leave the bridge.

Data spun around, just before he was about to step into the turbolift and faced his captain. "Yes, sir?" He asked him.

Picard wasn't quite sure how he could ask the question, nor was he sure if even asking the question was important."Are you sure you're all right with... deactivating Lore?"

Data did not possess emotions, and so he replied without even a second thought. But, that did not mean that he wasn't concerned. "I am the only person who has knowledge of how to do such a thing, so, therefore, I must."

"All right then," Picard concluded, being satisfied with Mr Data's response. "Off you go."

Lieutenant commander Data walked out of the bridge and made his way to deck five, which was where his brother, Lore, was being held at the moment, but not for long. As he walked into the detention cell area, in the brig, he noticed Lore. He was still simply sat on the hard, rather uncomfortable bed which was in all of the holding cells and was completely and utterly still. He did not move, nor did he show even the slightest flicker of a sign when he saw Data walked into the room. That is, until Data had walked right up to the gateway of the holding cell, and they were now only divided by a force field. "Brother," Lore began, as he stood up and walked over to the force field, so he and Data were now not that far apart, "why have you come?" He asked.

"My orders are to deactivate you." Data responded simply.

Lore's expression grew cold and, although, before he had had the slightest glimmer of hope, it had now all completely faded. "What did Grace say?" He asked.

Data shuffled his feet ever so slightly. "It is because of what Grace has said which had persuaded me against your deactivation."

"What do you mean, brother?" Lore asked.

"Ensign Fletcher... Grace, has told me that you have 'changed', and that you are now longer malevolent." Data replied to Lore's inquiry. "Is that true?" Data asked the question to reassure himself as well, as he was not one hundred percent certain that he was doing the right thing.

Lore nodded, albeit rather unwillingly. "Yes." He said.

Data looked over at the security guard who was posted in the brig at that time ordered him. "Lower the force field." And, the security officer obeyed his command.

"Come with me." Data said to his brother, with a stern expression on his face. Lore stepped out of the holding cell, and now, he did feel some sense of freedom. But, still, he did feel lost. Data walked out of the brig and Lore followed him closely behind. Data ordered Lore to walk in front of him, so that he could be sure that he a close eye on him at all times. Data knew that Lore could very easily slip away, unnoticed, or perhaps launch an attack or take hostages, but Data doubted this would happen now. Lore appeared to be tired and confused, something which Data did not really understand.

As soon as they had reached a deserted corridor, data asked his brother something important. "Lore, do you still have access to the coordinates denoting the location of your emergency transportation system?"

Lore nodded in response to the question and reached into his pocket, and, sure enough, he pulled out a small, but recognisable portable transporter. Data asked Lore to give it him, and Lore reluctantly handed it over. "Intriguing." Data expressed his fascination with the mysterious yet fantastic device which he was holding. He then programmed in some coordinates.

"Brother, what are those coordinates?" Lore asked, worried and concerned.

"It is nothing of concern." Data responded.

"Well, the last time you transported me, I ended up in space, so I'd prefer it if you told me where I'm going." Lore said, with a slight smile on his face.

"They are the coordinates for the small M-class planet, Cygnus III."

"You're sending me there?" Lore asked.

"That is correct." Once he had said that, Data punched in the last few coordinates into the transporter mechanism, which was less than an inch in diameter and handed it back over to Lore, who clipped it onto his clothing. Data told Lore to press the confirmation mechanism, which he did and he instantly transported down to the surface of the planet. Data had calculated the manoeuvre precisely. Now, the Enterprise was simply travelling on impulse power, as they were carrying out a routine survey of the Gamma Epsilon system, because of a recent trading disagreement. The Cygnus system was the closest star system to Gamma Epsilon, and so Data had decided to transport Lore down there. He would be lonely, but at least he could cause no more harm, and he was gone.


	22. Dilemmas and mistakes

Lieutenant commander Data stared, straight at the empty space that was in front of himself. Only not that long ago, his brother had been stood there, beside him, but that was then and this was now He had sent Lore away, and, he realised that he would almost definitely never see him again. Lore was dangerous and Data had only done what he had to do. He couldn't let Lore's plan see daylight and Data knew that, if it ever did, many people would die. And, if that were to happen, Data would never forgive himself.

He knew, being an android, that he had spent exactly ten point four, three, three minutes staring at the empty space, but for some reason, it seemed to be longer than that. Data did, in part, for reasons which he could not quite put his finger on, feel responsible for what his brother had become. Data knew that ore had been a benevolent android, much like he, himself was now, but something had gone wrong with Lore. Data knew that he had not been responsible for that, as Lore's behaviour was purely because of the fact that his ethical programme had suffered a severe malfunction. But, it was Lore's jealousy of Data, and of his and Data's creator, Noonian Soong, which had been the trigger for Lore's hatred of biological lifeforms.

But, even above all of that, Data was still certain that he possessed something akin to care towards Lore. Obviously, he could not feel anything Lore, but Data was somewhat worried about him. He did feel something like guilt, as he felt that Lore was his responsibility and that he had failed him.

Finally, after some amount of time, Data came to the conclusion that it was not worth hanging around here. After all, it had been him who had transported Lore away, and it had been his decision to do so. Of course, he had been ordered to deactivate Lore, but he could not bring himself to do that. He wanted to give Lore a second chance. Lore was unlucky, Data knew that he would probably had acted the same way as Lore, if it had been his own ethical programming which had failed instead.

He also felt proud. He had listened to what Grace had said to him, and Data felt that this sense of... compassion brought him closer to being human. Data knew very well that he would never actually physically be a human in the conventional sense, but these recent events had brought him even nearer than he had ever thought he would. And, for that he was very grateful.

Data began to walk away from the scene but his walk was interrupted by the captain's Number One, commander Riker. The commander stood in front of Data. "Have you deactivated Lore?" He asked, looking down at the android.

Data twitched ever so slightly and, although he was not completely aware of it, shuffled his feet a bit. He thought about what to say in response to the commander's question. Of course, Data had told everyone that he would deactivate lore, but he had not been true to his word. He had never actually lied before, but he did it for a good reason. He knew he had to protect Lore, and so he continued to lie. "Yes, commander. The deactivation was successful."

"So," Riker continued, "what happens now?"

Data wasn't quite sure what he meant. "Sir?"

Riker smiled, and changed the wording of his question. "What did you do with Lore after you deactivated him? Have you destroyed him?"

"I have transported his body to a secure location."

William Riker wasn't entirely satisfied. "Which transporter room did you use?" He asked, hopping to cure his curiosity.

"I used the cargo bay transporter," Data replied, after hesitating slightly.

Riker frowned, confused. "Why? Surely the main transporter room was closer."

"It was, however," Data continued, "the cargo bay transporter has a signal which is considerably harder to trace."

The commander folded his arms. "Why would it need to be a secure transportation link?"

"It was my belief that it would be safer, for everyone, if Lore's signal could not be detected. So, for that reason, I have erased all traces regarding his location."

"Ah," Riker saw that there was much sense in Data's response; he did not know that it was all a lie. "Very good, Mr Data." He began to walk off, but then he spun back around to face Data once more. "Oh, and, the captain says that you can have the rest of the day off, if you need it."

"That is not necessary, commander, I do not need rest."

Riker sighed. "I know, but he was your brother, and the captain insisted."

Lieutenant commander Data nodded and thanked the commander, before walking to his quarters.

When he walked into his personal quarters, Data had a shock. Of course, it wasn't really a shock in the traditional sense, but he did become alarmed. He saw a figure towards the back of the room. He knew it wasn't Lore; it was a woman. He stepped forward, cautiously. As he got closer, he knew who it was; Grace. "Ensign... Fletcher... what are you?..." He stuttered, before he accidentally finished his sentence rather abruptly.

Grace turned around and walked up to him. "I'm sorry. This was so rude of me, but I still had the access codes to you quarters, as, you know, me and Lore used to stay here. I just had to know, for sure... what have you done with Lore?" She asked him. She was not crying, although she knew that she was very upset. She was too anxious.

"I have transported him to a nearby planet." Data responded quietly.

It took Grace a few seconds to actually process the response which Data had given her. She was almost one hundred percent sure that Data would have deactivated Lore. Perhaps, he was more human than she had previously thought. "Thank you." Grace said. Data, himself, wasn't entirely sure about how he should react in return, so he just stood there.

"I guess I'll be going." Grace said awkwardly before making her way towards the door of the quarters. But, before she could even walk out of the door, Grace shot her head back around, and her expression was no longer one of happiness and relief. "Data." She said, her voice cold and quiet.

Data turned around. "Yes?" He said.

"Will...will I ever be able to see Lore again?" She stuttered as she felt something catch in her throat.

"No."

"What... what do you mean? You can't have just transported him to some random place. Please tell me I can see him again." She said her voice starting to crack and her eyes began to become wet from the tears.

"Lore is a danger to the Federation." Data said simply, his expression unchanged and his voice neutral.

"I thought you said that he had changed." Grace said, and she felt the catch in her throat once again.

"That may be true, but I could not disobey the captain's orders."

"Disobey? You've already disobeyed him by not deactivating Lore!" Grace felt more upset than angry, as she thought of herself as never actually being a violent person herself. She looked at Data, focusing hard on him, but he kept reminding her of Lore, which, understandingly, only added to her immense levels of distress. She saw that Data was not saying anything, not even a single word or even doing the most minuscule gesture; he was just simply standing there, motionless. She walked up to him and studied his expression. "Why, Data? Why won't you talk. Lore's shown me that he can be human, and so can you."

Data could see clearly how distressed and angry Grace was, and he felt that the right thing to do was to try and see if she was all right, and so, that was exactly what she did. "Grace... is there anything I can do?"

Grace sighed and then shook her head, slowly, for she knew that all hope was probably well and truly lost. She looked across the android's broad shoulders and caught a glimpse of the hard, grey night sky, which was made welcoming and exciting by the many millions of stars which resided there. For a shirt while she just stood there, but then she cast her gaze back at Data. "No, unless you can find some way for me to see him." She said nothing of the sort, but her eyes were pleading with him to reconsider.

Data knew how much Lore meant to this woman, but, still, he could not listen to her wishes. "Lore is dangerous." He responded simply, trying hard not to look at Grace.

Grace looked at him and her eyes began to fill up with tears. She was no longer simply upset, she was scared. She was scared for Lore and what might happen to him. She needed to be with him. "Data, Lore is scared and lonely. He's out there all by himself."

"An android cannot succumb to loneliness." Data pointed out the flaw in her argument with logic and knowledge.

Grace exhaled, she did not know what else she could do. "Yes, but Lore's more than an android, and so are you," she looked up at him and gazed deeply into his amber coloured eyes. "You're used to having people around you, aren't you?" She asked him.

Data nodded and returned a simple response. "Yes, I have become accustomed to such companionship."

"Well, then you must know how Lore, and I, feel. Friendship is a wonderful thing, but love is so much more. It offers security and trust and intimacy. It makes you feel cared for." She tried to attempt a smile, but t was only very feeble.

"I do understand the human requirement for such a thing, however..."

Grace cut him off, but not particularly violently. "There is no 'however', Data. I miss Lore, and I'm sure you do to. Please, I just need to speak with him. I need to reassure him. We didn't even get a chance to say goodbye, properly, I mean."

Data shook his head and began to walk around the room, but Grace caught his arm. "Data, please..." She said.

"Grace, I cannot. Lore poses a threat to the Federation and, indeed, all other biological lifeforms. He is my responsibility."

"Data..." Grace could not say any more than she already had done, and she knew that that was the case. She had tried her best, but it had not worked. "Please..." She took a few steps forward and put her hands on his arms, almost holding him at arm's length. "It wouldn't take long, all I ask of you is to let me talk with him one last time. Please."

Lieutenant commander Data knew very well that he had already disobeyed a highly important direct order, but he had done what he had felt was for the best. Grace's argument was very logical, and Data, himself, also wished that some day, perhaps even he would find out what it was like to be loved. But, now, it was his brother's life at stake, and he had to take that into account. He had been programmed never to disobey an order, unless the order, itself, proved to be some sort of a threat. But, he had disobeyed captain Picard's previous order to deactivate Lore, and, to add fuel to the fire, he had lied about what had truly happened. These events, Data felt, were perhaps signals that this issue was a very important once, and so he decided to follow a course of action concerning this new philosophy.

"Grace," Data began to talk, his voice neutral, "I can ensure that you and Lore have, at most, four hours together on the planet's surface. The task at hand will be extremely complicated to perform, as it will involve creating a specific subroutine, and then uploading it into the Enterprise's computer systems so that it thinks you will be on board, when, in fact, you will be on the surface of Cygnus III. The planet's atmosphere is M-class, and so suitable for the human body to survive."

Grace was completely astounded with Data's response. She had been bracing herself for the absolute worse and had been almost ready to face up to the fact that she would never see Lore again, but now, none of that mattered now. She, without thinking entirely straight, grabbed the lieutenant commander and pulled him into her arms. She gave him a slight peck on the cheek and squealed with wonder and appreciation, "Thank you!"

"It will, however, mean that your time together will be limited."

Grace knew that she did not want to let Lore go, but she also knew that she had to. "That doesn't matter, Data. I'm just so grateful." She finally let Data escape from the embrace and she talked again. "But, when will the subroutine be ready, do you think?"

Data, as always, did not even round up the number in question, he just simply said it in its raw form. He was always exact. "It is expected to take approximately three days, fourteen hours, seventeen minutes and fifty six seconds."

Grace smiled. "Thank you, Data. You're more human than all of us."


	23. Friends

Although Grace felt, in her heart, that she was doing the right thing, she knew, deep inside of her, that it was probably not the best thing to do. Nevertheless, she had to do this, and she desperately wanted to talk with Lore, even if it was for only a few hours. She looked at lieutenant commander Data, who was still standing rather motionless; Grace thought that he might still be puzzling over the fact that she had hugged him. But, that hug was purely one of friendship and gratitude, absolutely nothing more. She stared at him for a little while longer, but then she decided that it was probably for the best if she was to leave Data in peace. "I'll leave you to it, then." She smiled at him, and began to walk off, before looking over her shoulder to express her sincere gratitude once again, "Thank you."

As she was walking out of Data's quarters, Grace felt some sort of sigh of relief. But, as well as that, she also had an intense feeling of worry and dread. For, soon, her time with Lore will be over, so she had to keep on reminding herself that it was not over yet. She would savour every single last moment that they spent together.

She walked down the corridor and made her way to her quarters, which were only one deck away from lieutenant commander Data's. When she got inside of her quarters, she sat down on the medium sized couch and simply pondered. She was thinking about what she should say to Lore once she and him could finally be together. But, her casual train of thought was promptly, and, rather annoyingly, interrupted by the loud noise of the door chiming. She wondered who it could be, as she knew that Sarah, who she was sharing her quarters with, was working a late shift in engineering. Nevertheless, although she could not really be bothered to open the door, she sighed and got up from the couch. She opened the door, and she was greeted by a less than pleasant sight. It took her a few moments for her brain to recognise who exactly it was at her door, but she soon realised who it was.

Grace sighed and rubbed her eyes. "What do you want, Andy?" She asked, straight and to the point. Her voice was harsh, but not too harsh. It did still, however, denote that she was fed up and that she had her mind focused on other things. She had had one hell of a day, and all that she wanted was a rest. She didn't particularly feel like talking to anyone, let alone Andy Summers.

Andy didn't reply straight away, which prompted Grace to speak again. To be honest, all she wanted to do was be alone, and get rid of him. "Look, I really don't feel like talking." She said honestly.

Andy's facial expression became a little downcast at this. "I... um... just wanted to see if, you know, you were all right." He shrugged and looked at the floor.

Grace struggled to smile, but she succeeded. Regardless of what she had thought of Andy, she knew that he was really a decent person. "That's very sweet of you, but, really, I'm fine."

"Oh." Andy looked a little downcast. "Is Sarah there?" He asked. He felt as though he was behaving as if he were shy, something which he definitely was not. Maybe, he thought, he had learnt from his mistakes. Sarah could indeed be a handful, and she was very protective of Grace. She viewed her as a sort of sister, one which she never really had. Andy didn't really want Sarah to kick off.

Grace shook her head, telling the plain and simple truth. "No, why?"

"I...I... wondered if," he paused, as if thinking about what he should say, so that he could be sure that he would get the response he wanted, "... if... I could come in?..." Hearing himself like like this was strange for Andy. He had always been very, very confident and was certainly not afraid to voice his honest opinion.

Grace sighed. She didn't really know what to say. Of course, she couldn't really say no, but, then again, she couldn't really say yes to him either. She knew that Andy was quite a strong person, and was, for lack of a better word, persuasive, but she dismissed this possibility as she trusted him. She wasn't really sure why she trusted him. But, she knew that, regardless of all of the things that Andy had done, he was not sly or scheming. "Yeah, sure. Why not." She decided and then let him walk in to the quarters.

"I'm so glad I'm not an ensign any more." He said, before justifying his opinion. "These quarters are very small." Now, he was just talking for the sake of it.

"Uh uh." Grace uttered the simple response as she slumped back down onto the couch, thinking about random things.

Andy Summers felt a little awkward, what with himself wandering around the room, so he sat down next to her. "You're not all right, are you?" He asked, looking at her.

Grace knew that she didn't particularly feel like talking right now, but she didn't want to be rude, so she replied anyway. "Yes, I'm fine, really." Although her tone of voice, now, was plain and calm, she was certainly not feeling that way inside. She was nervous. She and Andy had had a relationship in the past, but it was pretty much destroyed by Starfleet, and she knew that he had not moved on like she had.

Andy was unconvinced and he made a slight murmuring sound. It didn't necessarily mean anything, but Grace heard it. "I guess... I just wanted to say... I'm sorry." Andy said rather loudly as if he wanted himself to hear it too and he looked around the room.

"Don't worry. Its really Lore who you should be apologizing to." She said, without even looking at him.

"Yeah, but I did say all those things to you, didn't I?" He was definitely attracted to Grace, but he did know that his previous comments had been somewhat rude. It was Lore, not her, who he held a grudge against.

Grace smiled. "Yes, but... can we just not talk about it?" She asked.

"All right then." He paused, and then continued. "It was really rude of me."

"Yeah well, its forgotten." Grace smiled sweetly at Andy and placed her hand, in only a friendly manner, upon his leg.

Andy didn't really know how to react. Could it possibly be that Grace liked him? He, himself, really like her, but he knew she was still, for all intensive purposes, with Lore. But, then again, he reminded himself, Lore was deactivated, as far as he knew, and so he thought Grace must be feeling lonely. So, he reacted they only way he thought he could, and that was lean in and he placed his lips on hers.

Startled, Grace pulled herself back and scowled. "Andy! What the hell are you doing?"

But, determined, Andy pulled Grace back towards him and pressed his lips against hers, this time even harder and with more force. He was quite strong, and Grace had to use a considerable amount of her own strength to try and prize him off, and in the end, she did. He reaction was pure instinct, she slapped him. It wasn't a hard hit, but it made a slight red mark on Andy's cheek.

Andy, also startled by her reaction, wore a blank expression on her face. "I... I... thought..." He rubbed his injured cheek.

Before Andy could even finish his sentence, Grace cut him off. "Well," She shouted at him as she made a dismissive gesture at him, "you thought wrong!"

"I... I'm sorry... I guess I just thought..." Andy began to splutter out random words linked to worry and regret.

"No!" She yelled at him as she stood up and backed away from him, slowly. "Just, leave..."

"I'm sorry, Grace, I really am." He tried to redeem himself.

Grace dismissed his further attempts at apologizing. "No," she said defiantly, "first you call me a slut, then you attack my boyfriend, and now, you go and try a stunt like this?!" She was upset now as well as infuriated.

"Grace...I..." Andy began.

Grace shook her head and walked over to the door. "Leave, please... just... leave."

Although Andy did feel bad for what he had just done, his arrogance soon crept back in. "You... you won't tell anyone... will you?"

Grace did not reply. It was her business, and only hers, and so it was up to her whether or not she would tell anybody. She turned around and sighed and Andy soon got the message and he left.

Grace didn't quite know what to do. The whole encounter had only lasted for the best part of half an hour. And, besides, she reassured herself, it wasn't as though Andy had even tried to do that much, he had only tried to kiss her. But, he had done it again, she reminded herself. But, what she thought made her feel the worst was the fact that she had trusted him and now she knew that he hadn't really changed. If it was only one, tiny, ridiculous kiss then, perhaps, she wouldn't be that bothered. But it had happened more than once.

A few hours later, Sarah Saunders returned from her late shift working in the main engineering room of the Enterprise. She walked into the quarters that she had to share with Grace Fletcher and sat down. It was reasonably late now, and Sarah thought that Grace would be asleep, but she wasn't and Sarah could clearly see that Grace was stood up, staring at some of the artwork which decorated the room.

Sarah decided to break the uneasy silence. "Grace?" She began. "What's up."

"Nothing." Grace replied quickly, but then she added. "Its Andy."

Sarah sighed and walked up to her friend. "Come on, spill."

Grace shook her head and continued to stare at the paintings, even though she didn't particularly like them that much. She did care for art, but just not these ones. Sarah had chosen them, and, since they had to share these quarters as they were ensigns, so Grace had decided not to say anything about them.

"Did he try something?" Sarah asked, wearily.

Grace nodded. "Yeah."

Sarah had always been protective of Grace. She was a few years older than Grace, and so she had always felt a bit responsible for her. "That slimy bastard!" She exclaimed, showing her true feelings about Andy.

Grace tried to correct Sarah's understandable misconception. "No, no," she started, "it wasn't like that. He just tried to kiss me, that's all, and I brushed it off."

"Right, you 'brushed it off'. So, that's why I saw him walking around the deck with a red mark on his face!" She wasn't really being sincere, she was merely being sarcastic and was trying to lighten the mood.

Grace let out a short laugh. She had always though Sarah was good with humour.

"You are all right, though, aren't you?" Sarah asked, just to be sure.

"Yes, yes, I'm, fine."

"Oh," Sarah changed the subject, as she realised what the time was."I said I'd meet George in a few minutes."

"George?..." Grace didn't know who Sarah was referring to.

"Yeah, you know, George?"

"No, I don't." Grace replied.

"George Burly."

"Oh." Was all Grace could say.

Sarah thought Grace was growing uneasy, so she spoke up. "If you don't want me to, because, well, George and Andy are best mates, then I totally understand."

"No, its fine, honestly, go." Grace smiled.

"Okay, if you're sure." Sarah smiled at her before she went into the bathroom and began to inspect her appearance. She quickly applied some lipstick before leaving the quarters.

The time had gone past slowly, but the moment had soon arrived when Data had said that the subroutine would be ready. Grace waited for a few hours, until she received a hail from lieutenant commander Data. It was on an extremely cryptic, closed frequency, and so no one, not even captain Picard would be aware of the transmission. "Grace," Data began on the other end of the transmission, "are you there?"

At once, without even the slightest hesitation, Grace responded to it. "Yes, Data, I'm here."

"As I had predicted, the subroutine is now complete and you should be able to transport down."

"Thank you, so much, Data." Grace squealed.

Data continued. "However, there is only one way for you to transport down to the surface of Cygnus III without it being traced."

Grace's expression changed slightly. "Oh." She said.

"Nonetheless, I believe it is feasible. I have recorded a few schematics of the transporter system that Lore had used, and have created my own prototype."

"Is it... is it safe?" Grace asked, both worried and intrigued.

"I have only tested it on small mammals."

"So, I can't use it, then?" Her tone dimmed.

"It should be perfectly easy. The molecular arrangement, in simple terms, of a rabbit is relatively similar to that of a human."

"Can I use it now? Is it ready?"

"Yes. The transporter mechanism will be in the cargo bay. It resembles the appearance of an old-Earth microchip. All that is required to activate it is to press down the small lever in the centre of it. It has a four hour timer, so when that time is up, you will be instantly transported back to the Enterprise."

"Thank you." Grace said once more and she said goodbye to Data and walked to the cargo bay.


	24. Reunited

Having successfully transported down from the cargo bay of the Enterprise, Grace found herself in a lush field. There was grass that seemed to her to be too green and there were two stars shining brightly in the sky. Towards the lower left of her vision, just above the horizon, Grace could just about make out a small disc shaped object. It was a hazy grey colour and Grace correctly guessed that it was a moon. It was of a very small size, and it must have only have been half the diameter of the Earth's natural satellite, Luna.

She wandered aimlessly for a little while, until she came across a large hill. It seemed to be, because of its immense size, very close. When, in fact, it was most definitely not close. At best, it must have been at least half a mile away.

The temperature was rather pleasant at first, but that was when she was in the shade, and when she was not moving. Now, though, she was walking at a steady pace and the sun was blazing down at her. As the hill where she had decided to go, for some reason which she wasn't quite sure why, was towards the east, the sun was exactly in front of her. With every single step that Grace took, she felt as though the sun was coming closer and closer towards her. It must have been at least thirty degrees Celsius.

Grace cursed herself under her breath for not bringing a water bottle with her, but, then again, she decided that she was probably just over thinking things. The air wasn't particularly humid and it wasn't as though she was trekking through some barren desert wasteland. Grace sighed and continued to walk.

It had taken her little more than half an hour, but she had finally reached the foot of the hill. As she was at such a close proximity to the hill, it seemed more appropriate to call it a mountain. By the time Grace had reached the foot of the hill, her feet were aching. She walked quicker than she thought she would have been able to, but Grace simply put that down to her being so stressed. If Data had been true to his word, which Grace knew he almost certainly was, Lore was waiting for her on this lonely planet.

She thought about him as she sat down on the warm, dry grass. She hadn't seen any intelligent creatures roaming this small planet. However, she had managed to catch sight of a few animals which seemed to resemble sloths, but with one exception, they had pink fur. It wasn't a bright, vibrant shade of pink, but, nonetheless, Grace found them cute. However, that particular view of those pink sloth creatures was changed dramatically when she was unfortunate to encounter one up close; they had sharp, pearly white teeth and their facial expressions were certainly less than friendly.

Suddenly, Grace grew startled. She had heard a noise. It sounded like someone had stepped on a twig, which had then caused it to snap under their weight. Being suspicious, Grace lifted her head up and squinted at the sun, but she could see no evidence of someone being near her. She wondered who, or what, it could possibly be. After all, Data had told her that there were no intelligent species inhabiting this planet, and that idea had been verified once she had beamed down.

Then, Grace heard a voice, and at once, she recognised it. "Grace?" The voice said.

Grace stood up. "Yes?" She asked eagerly and excitedly.

Now, the figure which had been the speaker of her name walked forwards, toward her and at last, once he had gotten out of the shadows of the trees, Grace could see who it was. "Grace?..." The voice asked again. The figure walked over and now he was stood directly in front of her now. Grace felt a cold hand make contact with her cheek and she smiled. "...Lore?... Is that you?" She asked.

Lore took a small step forward and pulled her into his arms. Grace did not want the moment to end. It was simply perfect. All time seemed to stand still and she was with the man she loved. "Are you all right?" Lore asked as Grace rested her head on his shoulder.

"Yes, I just... I've missed you."

Although he did not like to admit it, Lore had missed her too. But, there was no one there who could judge them, so Lore thought no more of it. "I missed you too. I wasn't sure that you would come back."

"Of course I'd come back!" Grace smiled. It was a half-happy and a half-sad smile. She leant back a little, so that she was slightly pulling herself out of the hug and she planted her lips softly on his. Lore kissed her back. But, when he tried to maintain the kiss for longer, he suddenly felt Grace's lips go cold and he pulled away, alarmed. "What is it?"

Grace sniffed and wiped her right eye, which had a single, solitary tear cascading down from it. Grace shivered at the salty taste it gave once it reached her lips. "Nothing, its just... I can't stay here forever." She sobbed quietly.

Lore put his hand lovingly on her cheek and began to stroke her face gently. ""What do you mean?" He asked, alarmed and confused by what she had just said.

Grace shook her head and turned away, shrugging off Lore's affection. "Data said the transporter would have to beam me back within four hours of me getting here." She looked sad.

"Data?" Lore exclaimed in shock.

Grace nodded in response. "Yes." She sniffed again, trying to hold back the tears which she could feel were building up in force behind her eyes, but she was not very successful. "He let me beam down her, so that I could talk to you." She said to him, telling him the whole truth.

Lore considered and then used logic, something which he rarely used."So, you asked Data not to deactivate me?" He asked her. His voice was firm, but gentle at the same time.

"Yes. I couldn't just let you... die."

Lore put his hand on her shoulder, which beckoned her to turn around, and she was now facing him again. "Thank you." He said simply and kissed her on her forehead gently.

"I don't know what I'll do once I have to leave." Grace sobbed and Lore lifted his hand to dry her eyes.

"Shhh," Lore whispered as he let her rest her head on his shoulders as they hugged, "try not to think about that." He stroked her hair. It was very soft and he liked how the auburn colour of it caught the glare of the beautiful blazing sun.

"I won't leave you. I won't." Grace said, her tone adamant in her decision.

Lore smiled. "I thought you said Data told you that you had to leave..." He began.

"Yes, but, that doesn't mean I have to." Grace replied.

Lore became suspicious. "What will happen if you stay here longer?" He asked.

Grace sighed. She didn't really want to tell him, because she knew what he would say if she did tell him. She attempted to kiss him on the lips, but he stopped her. "Grace," he began, "what will happen?"

Finally, Grace realised that she had to tell him. There had been enough lies and she didn't want to add to the pile. "Data said that once the four hours is up, I will be beamed back up to the Enterprise."

Lore's emotions changed. He was sad.

Seeing his negative expression, Grace made an attempt at making it right. "But, that four hours means nothing. I can stay here... with you."

"No, Grace," Lore decided, "if you stay here, you'll never be able to return to the Enterprise. You'll be stuck here forever."

"I don't care!" Grace replied, almost yelling. "This is what I want."

"What about Starfleet?" Lore asked her. He was almost certain that bringing Starfleet into the conversation should sway her mind.

But, it didn't, much to his dismay. "What about it?" She replied. "I want to stay here with you."

"You can't." Lore replied. "I know how much you've been looking forward to this promotion..."

"That doesn't matter any more. You're then only person that I've ever truly loved, for real. I feel safe when I'm with you. I don't ever want to forget what that feels like."

Lore had found his conscience. "You will find someone, Grace. You're beautiful and smart, any man would be lucky to have you."

"Yes, and that man can be you. I want it to be you!" She said.

Lore shook his head. "No. I've had my chance. I don't deserve you. I won't let you throw away your future for me."

"But... I... I... love you." Grace said quietly, her voice cracking.

"I know, and I love you too." Lore kissed her on the lips once more and Grace returned the kiss. Lore curved his hands around her waist and she pressed her forehead against his. "Please, Lore, don't do this. I don't want to leave you..." She started to talk, but she was silenced when Lore's lips touched hers again.

"Don't worry about me, Grace." Lore whispered into her ear as she rested her head onto his shoulders. "I'll be all right." He said this to reassure himself as much as he had said it to reassure her. To be honest, Lore really didn't know what would happen. He knew very well that he could not bear to be apart from Grace; she was special, she had helped him to love and she had made him feel loved. That was something which he never even thought would happen to him. He was quickly becoming to realise how special and unique biological lifeforms were, but, his feelings were most definitely not entirely positive. Lore also knew that it was biological lifeforms which had made him the way he was. His own creator, the mastermind, Dr Noonian Soong, had been a human, and now, Lore despised him for making him who he was now.

Grace lifted her head up and looked hard and deeply into his amber coloured eyes. It seemed, to her, that the light was slowly fading from them and, with it, all chances of hope too. "I can tell you're lying." She stifled a tear. "I'll miss you. You can't just let me leave you here."

"I've already said, Grace, you must leave me. Soon, you'll forget about me." Saying this to her made Lore feel sad too. Because of the very fact that he was an android, Lore would always be able to remember something, no matter how insignificant these things may be. Although, sometimes, under certain circumstances, this would be an advantage and indeed be very useful, it was not that way this particular time. Lore wanted desperately for Grace to be able to forget about him, so he could be absolutely sure of the fact that she wouldn't be pining after him as the days went by. Lore knew it was impossible for him to forget, but a human could.

Grace lifted her hand and stroked his pale, cold cheek gently. "I'll never forget you, Lore." She sobbed as the tears in her eye began to make her vision even more impaired than the direct, intense sunlight already had done. "I can't." She repeated again.

Lore knew he had to be firm with her, and so he held her at arms length and looked sternly at her. "You have to, Grace. I'll never be able to see you again. Data has already risked his career with Starfleet by sending me here, and not deactivating me. I have to stay here."

"Lore..." Grace tried desperately to stop herself from looking the android in the eye, but she just couldn't help it. "...when I'm with you, I feel safe. I don't want to go." She said, whimpering slightly.

At this, Lore felt something cold and wet in his eye. Although he could not see it himself, it was a small orange coloured tear that was no streaming down his face. He blinked in an attempt to try and get it to disappear but it didn't really work. "You have to." Despite how he was feeling, Lore still managed to hide it, apart from the small tear. He had never cried before, as far as he could remember.

Grace felt her mouth quiver slightly and she could feel the unpleasant sensation of her make-up sticking to her cheeks and making her eyelids feel stiff. She winced a little at this, and at the sunlight that was streaming down at her. Her vision was blurred and she could sense that something was caught in her throat.

Lore looked down at her and he exhaled. He wasn't sure what he could do, so he did his best to try and cheer her up. He didn't want their last moments together to be ones of sadness and depression. He already had enough guilt. "Grace..." he spoke firmly, yet softly as he cupped her chin in his hand. Lore, being an android, had an internal chronometer, which enabled him to know the time wherever he was. This piece of equipment was the reason that Data would always recite numbers and times to the exact decimal, as that is how the chronometer measures things. "... We still have three hours left."


	25. Gone

"Grace." Lore said firmly as he looked deep into her eyes. He could tell that she was scared, but he knew he had to tell her. "You've only got thirty minutes." he said, choosing his words carefully. He did not want to have to witness her crying again.

Grace looked horrified. "What!?" She exclaimed, anxiously. She began to sob.

Lore held her chin in his hands. "Grace, the time is almost gone." He repeated what he had told her earlier.

Grace knew that Lore was correct, but she just didn't want to believe it. She had wanted their moment to last forever, but now she realised that it could not. "I know, but, I don't think I can do it. I should have destroyed the transporter device Data had given me, then he wouldn't be able to beam me back. I'd have to stay here." She knew that it was probably no use telling him this, but she had to try. She was beginning to wish that she had never even met Lore now. But, he had made her life better, so, for that reason, she realised that she was grateful that they had met.

"We've wasted five of those minutes arguing." Lore said to her, in a warning sort of tone.

Grace nodded glumly and wiped her eyes. "I know, I'm sorry." She cast her gaze to the right and, after squinting from the sunlight, she found a slightly raised bit of ground. She walked over to it, for it was only a few metres away from her, and she sat down. She patted the grassy patch beside her. "Come sit with me." She said to him.

At first, Lore didn't really want to, but then he knew he did. He sat beside her and Grace lifted his arm around her shoulders. They both knew, all to well, that they only had a few more minutes left together, and they didn't want to waste any more time. Lore sat there with Grace's head resting on his chest and he stroked her hair as she talked to him.

Lore breathed in and then spoke. "I'm sorry." He said simply.

Grace lifted her head up. "What? Why?" She asked.

He hook his head and sighed. "For all of this. For all I've done. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I can't stay with you."

The ensign sat up and looked at him, confused. "Shhh..." Grace said, reassuring him.

"No, Grace. I just wanted you to know that I don't blame you. Its my fault. All of it. I had delusions of grandeur. I've realised that, although Dr Soong made me the way I was, and, although he abandoned me, that doesn't mean that all people are like that." Lore said, justifying himself, to both Grace and to himself.

"Well, I forgive you then." Grace Fletcher replied as she sat in an upright position.

"I'll never forget you, Grace." Lore said shyly.

Smiling, Grace responded, "I won't forget you, either."

Lore looked deeply into her eyes and he spoke the words which he was dreading, but which he new he had to say. "There's only a few more minutes left." he said, firmly.

"How many is a 'few'?" Grace asked. Although Data was always very precise when ever he read out timings and such, Lore was the complete opposite.

"Two." Lore replied simply.

"I'm not sure if this thing needs calibrating or anything." Grace said, perplexed, as she looked down at the transporter device, which lieutenant commander Data had given her, was.

Lore leant forward and studied the small, rectangular device. "No, but," he continued, "you can't stand to near me when you're beamed up."

"Why?" Grace asked, her eyes wide.

"Because," Lore explained, "Data will have to try and get a lock on you. The Enterprise must be very far away by now."

"I suppose you're right." Grace nodded glumly as she stood up. After she had walked a few metres away from Lore, she turned back to ask him, "How much time do we have?"

"One minute, but that won't be for long." Lore replied.

Just as Grace was checking that the transporter device was safely secured; if it wasn't she might be transported into space, or in the middle of a solid wall, or even worse, her atoms would get mixed up, Lore stood up and proceeded to walk over to her.

Grace looked up to see him standing beside her. "Lore?..." She began.

Before she could finish her sentence, she felt Lore press his cold lips onto hers. She savoured every single moment of it and, once their lips were free, whispered, "I love you."

Lore stepped back from her, as he knew that she was going to be transported back on board the ship at any moment. "I love you too." Just as he said that final word, he saw Grace's body begin to shimmer in a magnificent display of white, blue and green sparkles and he stared out into the distance. She was gone.


	26. Separation

The last thing that Grace saw of Lore was his face moving further and further away from her, until her vision was blurred by the light of the transporter beam shimmering around her. She blinked, only once, but her eyes were still closed for a fraction of a second, and when she opened them again, she found herself looking at four grey walls. The cargo bay.

She didn't cry. She didn't show any emotion. She just stood still. When she turned around, for some reason, she had a somewhat nasty shock. She could she a pale, white faced android, with golden eyes and jet black hair. At first, she thought it may have been Lore, but she realised that idea was simply ludicrous and she knew it was Data.

The android officer stepped forwards. "Grace?" He began, his tone of voice plain and assertive.

Grace breathed in deeply, preparing herself. "Yes, commander?" She asked.

"Can I be of any assistance?" He asked, innocently.

Grace shook her head. "No, Data, I'm all right. Really, I am."

He nodded.

"I'm sorry to ask, but I don't have a shift now, do I?" Grace asked, wearily.

Data checked his computer banks. "No. You do, however, have a shift in engineering tomorrow at 0500 hours. And," he paused, checking that his information was correct, "are scheduled to attend a meeting at 1900 hours tomorrow."

"A meeting? What sort of meeting?" Grace raised a quizzical eyebrow.

After referring to his data banks, he answered. "It does not say much, but it is a celebration about..." he paused "...a promotion."

Grace's face lit up. She was still feeling hurt inside and she wanted so much to cry about Lore, but now she had something to look forward to. "A Promotion? And, I'm invited?" She asked, just to make sure.

"Yes."

Grace smiled and then handed the transporter device over to Data. She looked him in the eye. "Thank you, Data. Thank you." She then walked out of engineering. She had no more shifts to do that day, and so she had a lot of spare time. She decided to go to Ten Forward. She thought that being cooped up in her quarters would not do her a great deal of good, and, besides, she could do with the company.

Grace decided that it would be best if she could forget Lore. But, try as she might, she simply could not do it. He had changed her life and she his, how could she ever forget that? Obviously, she knew that he used to be evil and malevolent, but that had all changed now. And, that change was all down to her. She had helped him to understand things which Lore could never have even dreamed of. And, this was her payment; sitting around, analysing the warp core and such when all she wanted to do was be with him. But, she knew that could never happen now. They had gone their separate ways, whether they liked it or not. Of course, Grace could understand why Lore had to be detained, but it wasn't fair.


	27. Alone with life

The atmosphere on the M-Class planet, Cygnus III was absolutely silent. It wasn't the sort of tranquil, serene silence, it was more the eerie sort. The world was covered with lush green rainforests and numerous streams filled to the brim with exotic looking fish and purple coloured seaweed. The skies were much like the lush ground below them, in the fact that they were filled with all different kinds of life. There were multi-coloured birds, which seemed to large to be capable of flying even the shortest of distances. As well as the plethora of animal life which called the small rocky world their home, there were many unique plant species too. There were trees with leaves that were as red as the burning embers of a fire and thistles that smelt like roses.

However, in spite of all of this beauty and wonder, the air was silent and there was, at present, not a bird, insect or bat in the sky. The seas were still and the trees were not swaying. It was almost as if every single thing was dead. But, the planet still appeared healthy, which only added to the eeriness of the atmosphere. It was almost as if time was standing still and all life had simply frozen.

As he stared into the once blue sky, which had now fallen into the abyss of the night, Lore sighed heavily. There were no tears, just a blank expression. One that was covered with guilt and sadness.

At last, the red dwarf star which lit up the sky of Cygnus III had disappeared below the horizon and the planet was left in total darkness. Of course, being an android, Lore was not phased by this, but by the blackness that it kept his mind in. He had wanted so long to experience love, and now that was to be no more. All he had left was hate and anguish. But, regardless of all this, he had no one to blame. There was, obviously, Grace, but, why would he blame her? It wasn't right to, and, besides, he knew that he could not bring himself to do so. She had been the one to teach him the right from the wrong and she had loved him. It was not her fault, in any way, shape or form, that they had to be separated. Grace had shown him that there was always hope and that there were some people which you could trust. Although he despised his own creator, Dr Noonian Soong, with as much contempt as he possibly could, he knew, deep down, that not all people were like that.

Then, suddenly, a new idea shot into Lore's mind. There was that officer, lieutenant Summers which he had always, understandably, held a grudge against. Lore knew that he and Grace used to have some sort of a relationship, but that was in the past. Andy had had his chance, and now it was gone. Nevertheless, that did not stop him from trying. Lore hated how Andy had taken advantage of Grace. Of course, he had only really met the lieutenant twice, but both of those times, they had gotten into a fight. And, both of those fights were about Grace. Lore, himself, did not know that Andy had visited Grace's quarters only a short while before she beamed down to visit him. Grace had chosen not to tell Lore. Not because she was afraid or ashamed, but because she was unsure of what Lore would do once he found out.

But, perhaps the most obvious, was Jean-Luc Picard, captain of the mighty, majestic USS Enterprise. It was captain Picard who had persecuted Lore. It was he who had ordered his deactivation. And, it was he who was a representative for the Federation. Picard stood for all things which Lore despised; equality and democracy. Once upon a time, one of those things would have been love, but, that was not the case any more.

The one person which Lore was surprised about not feeling much contempt for was his own brother, Data. Lieutenant commander Data had been given the order of deactivating Lore, but he lied. He had helped Lore more than he was due, and for that reason, Lore was grateful. Lore did know, however, that Data was more or less a child when it came to matters regarding social happenings and such, and so it may simply be that Data did not deactivate Lore because he was a gullible fool. At least, that was what Lore liked to think, but he did know that Data really did care a great deal about him.

For now, though, Lore had nothing to do. He wasn't the sort of person who would simply feel sorry for himself or who would mope around for hours on end. Lore wanted desperately to do something about his seemingly hopeless situation, but he could not think of anything to do. Grace had only been gone for a few hours, if that, but, still, Lore felt as though he was missing her. He thought that this was quite pathetic. But, he knew that he was probably distressed as well, for he knew that it was very unlikely that he would ever see her again.

And so, Lore just stayed still. He found a short, sturdy tree stump and he just sat there. He wasn't quite sure how long he would remain sat there. But, he wasn't just simply sat there for no reason. He had to think of a plan. And, this time, he could not fail. Not only would this mean that he could find the emotion chip which he longed for so much, but also, he and Grace would see each other again. Whilst both those occurrences sounded enticing to him, it was the latter which he wanted most of all.

Staring into the bleak sky seemed, to him, to make the day go faster. Of course, he knew that this was impossible, but he didn't particularly care. The sky, just before Grace had left was a brilliant shade of blue, with numerous colourful birds and insects fluttering about the air. But, now that she was gone, it was if all life had been drained out of the tiny rocky world upon which he was standing. Obviously, this change of mood from one of happiness and joy to one of dread and despair was because of the time of day. The already weak red dwarf star which dominated Cygnus III's skies had dipped below the horizon and Lore was left in the dark, in more ways than one.

All he could do now was hope. Humans were naïve, sentimental, stupid creatures, or that was Lore's view not that long ago. That, however, was not the case any more. As, Lore, himself, was beginning to feel like that.

The bleak skies offered him no respite, nor did the ominous silence of the world. The animals were still, the waves were quiet and the wind was basically non-existent.

Meanwhile, on board the USS Enterprise, Data was doing pretty much the same thing as his brother was doing. He was simply sat in his quarters, musing over recent events. However, these were not the usual, commonplace events that he would usually think about. Data was more than capable of monitoring the Enterprise's warp core, organising the complete works of Charles Dickens and wondering about some of life's great mysteries all at the same time. But, that was not the case in this particular instance. Now, Data's mind was simply fixed on one particular thing. And, that thing was Lore. He wasn't worried, nor was he guilty. But, that was just because of his inability to do so. He felt something which he believed to be akin to concern for his brother and he wanted to put it right.

But, he knew that he could not. Lore was gone, and, whilst Data knew exactly where he was, as he was the one who sent him there in the first place, he could not return to him. He had already taken too many risks, even if he did think that they were necessary, and he could not afford to risk any more. Data, as he had an ethical programme, was able of possessing a conscience. And, it was this aspect of him which had recently come into play.

Data was not really sure what concern felt like. For, he had never really had a proper reason to feel it. When his crew mate, Tasha Yar was killed whilst on a mission, Data was sure that he had felt some sort of loss. Had it been any other crew member who had been killed that fateful day by Armus, Data thought his feelings would have been different. That was because he felt a sort of connection with lieutenant Yar, ever since the unfortunate incident that unfolded during the polywater intoxication.

The android officer had been granted some rest by the captain, for which he thought he should be grateful. But, in all fairness, Data didn't really think that he was in need of them. He did not require rest or recuperation, like the majority of biological lifeforms did.

He may not have been able to feel emotions, but he certainly did have a conscience.


	28. Rewards and memories

It had been a week days since she and Lore had said their final goodbyes, but ensign Grace Fletcher was still rather unsure as to whether or not she felt like doing much. The technical paper which she had asked Data to read had gotten her some positive feedback, which calmed her nerves a little. But, she still was not certain that she wanted to continue doing what she was doing. Of course she loved working with Starfleet, it was a lifelong dream to do so, but her mind was not fully made up on the matter.

She hadn't seen her mother for three years, and she missed her. She wanted to just return to her home and stay there for just a little while. She was looking forward to having Thanksgiving dinner, with the rest of her family, but Earth was many light years away. Obviously, Grace had been able to communicate with her family one way or another, but not actually face to face. Ever since she and Lore had gone their separate ways, she had felt lost and confused. All she wanted was a break. Shore leave, perhaps. She just wanted some time to think things through.

Grace was sat in Ten Forward, thinking. Her best friend, Sarah Saunders, was sat there with her and they were both looking out of the large floor to ceiling walls of the room. The last time Grace had been to Ten Forward, she and Lore had been sat in one of the many booths which lined the windows. That was when Andy Summers had ignited a fight between himself and Lore. But, Grace tried her best not to think about that at the moment.

"Look," Sarah looked at her friend hard in the eye. Her expression was firm, yet friendly, "if you're not going to drink that..." she gestured to the black coffee which was placed on the table in front of the. It was probably stone cold by now.

Grace looked up and sighed a little. Her gaze had been so fixed on the stars, which looked like tiny little diamonds, as the streamed across the sky, that she hadn't really been paying much attention to her friend.

"Grace?..." Sarah prompted her as she stared at the coffee mug on the table.

It had taken her a little while, but Grace soon realised what Sarah was saying. "Oh... yeah... sorry." She then took her gaze off of the dark sky and picked up her coffee cup. It was cold and the actual drink itself was relatively disgusting. It was tangy and gritty and stuck to the lining of her throat. She grimaced as she took the final sip.

Sarah opened her mouth to say something but she was interrupted by the chirping sound of the communications panel. Commander Riker's voice began to boom throughout Ten Forward. "Will ensigns Abbey, Armstrong, Collins, Driscoll, Fletcher, Franklin, Hubble, Jones, Martin, Newman, Powell, Saunders, Simpson, Toms and Underwood please report to the main conference room." The panel chirped once again to signify the fact that the transmission had ended.

Grace stared at Sarah, open-mouthed. "Did he...did he say my name?" She asked. She knew that she probably should have been listening, but, to be honest, she wasn't really in the mood.

Sarah pondered the question for a short while, before remembering that commander Riker had definitely said 'Fletcher' and then told Grace. "Uh uh. At least, I think so."

"Well, he said your name too." She recalled Number One saying the word 'Saunders'.

"What is it for? Have we done something wrong?" Sarah asked Grace.

"I don't know. It kind of feels like we're back at school, and we've got detention or something!" She giggled.

Sarah laughed too, but only a little and then got up from her seat. She walked over to another ensign, who worked in the medical division. "Jack," she began, "do you know what this thing is for?"

Ensign Jack Powell shook his head. "I'm not sure," he replied, but, just as Sarah was getting ready to walk away, he remembered something. "But, I think it might have something to do with the promotions."

"Promotions?" Sarah asked, confused with what he had just said.

Jack, himself, was quizzical as to why Sarah had asked him that question. She was an ensign, like him, and so she surely would have heard about the promotions.

Suddenly, Sarah understood. "Ah, yes. I remember. Thank you." She smiled and she returned to where Grace was. "We'd better get going." She said to her.

Grace grew alarmed. "What? Why?" She asked.

"Well, apparently, this thing is to do with the promotions!" She exclaimed.

"Oh my god, Sarah, now you've made me nervous!" She whined.

"Never mind about that. You don't want to be late, do you?" She grabbed her friend by the arm and they made their way to the main conference room, which was where they had been called.

Luckily for them, they weren't particularly late. The conference room had been redesigned, especially for this event and it was set out rather like a concert hall. There were exactly fifteen ensigns there, all waiting eagerly to see it they had been promoted.

After a few minutes, when he was sure that everyone had taken their seats, Riker began to congratulate them on a few things, such as their great level of ability and determination and how passionate they all were. Soon, he was about to announce the promotions. He went down the list of names in alphabetical order. "Jonathan Abbey," he said in a loud, appreciative voice. Once that officer had walked up over to him, Riker presented him with a single uniform pin. The uniform of an ensign had only one pin in the collar, whereas a lieutenant uniform had two.

It had taken little over ten minutes, but Riker soon came to the letter 'F' in the alphabet. "Grace Fletcher," he boomed. Grace got up from her seat slowly and made her way towards the commander. As he passed her the pin and praised her and such, she thanked him, too much perhaps, and sat back down.

By this time, it had become clear that every single officer in the room was to get a promotion.

Soon, it was time for the letter 'S'. To Sarah's relief and wonderment, Riker announced her name and she received her uniform pin.

Finally, after maybe fifteen minutes or so, the final name was announced. Commander Riker soon gave a few more words of wisdom designed to motivate and encourage the newly promoted lieutenants.

Once the meeting had finished, Grace and Sarah each helped each other to place on their uniform pins. "Well done." Grace smiled at her friend, who returned the appraisal.

Many of the newly promoted officers were going to go to Ten Forward, to celebrate, but Grace didn't want to. Instead, as soon as she walked out of the main conference room, she stopped by one of large windows which lined the sides of the corridors of the Enterprise-D and looked out into the vast cosmos. She had only been standing there a while when she realised that someone was standing beside her. She tilted her head slightly, in order to get a better look and exclaimed. "Data!"

Lieutenant commander Data was slightly taken aback by Grace's sudden remark. "I would like to congratulate you in your recent promotion to lieutenant."

Grace blushed. She liked Data as a friend, but she was still not entirely comfortable with him, as he still, understandably, reminded her so much of Lore. "Thank you."

Data nodded, and, as he had said all that he wanted to say, began to walk on.

"Wait," Grace said to him just before he had walked too far away, "I mean thank you for everything." She smiled.

Once again, Data nodded and then he made his way back to the bridge. He realise that staying cooped up in his quarters for such a long time could not be doing him much good, and so he decided that he should go back to work, which is what he did.

It felt odd, to her. Instead of returning to Data's quarters, when Lore had commandeered them, she would have to go back to her and Sarah's own quarters. But, all was not that bad, as she understood. Because they now both held the rank of lieutenant, they would soon be assigned their own, separate quarters.

As the stars streaked past the ship, it made Grace wonder. She wondered which of those stars had a planet called Cygnus III orbiting it. But, the stars were so distant and her future was set in Starfleet. Two separate paths. Star-crossed lovers.


End file.
